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THE REFORMATION: 

a 

BRIEF EXPOSITION 

OF SOME OF THE 

ERRORS AND CORRUPTIONS 

OF THE 

&t)urcf) of Home. 



BY THE 

RT. REV. ALEXANDER VIETS GRISWOLD, D. D., 

LATE BISHOP OP THE EASTERN ' DIOCESE. 



BOSTON: 
JAMES B. DOW, PUBLISHER. 
1843. 
I. 



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GP 



19781 




THE REFORMATION. 



The objection so long and so much urged against 
the Protestant Episcopal Church, as having retained 
the errors of the Romish religion, is being revived. 
And with mortification and shame we must acknowl- 
edge the fact, that efforts are now making, by Pro- 
testant Episcopalians even, to stigmatize the Reforma- 
tion as being without principle and without use, and 
even a departure from the true Catholicism of the 
church of Christ. 

Emboldened by this extraordinary movement, a 
bishop of the Romish Church has published a 
" Letter, addressed to the Bishops of the Protestant 
Episcopal Church," inviting them to union with the 
Papists, and more than intimating that there is now 
but little which separates us from them ; that sub- 
mitting to the pope is necessary to the saving of our 
souls; and that, unless we do it, numbers may break 
from our ranks. 

Whether we shall be more sure of saving our souls 
by acknowledging as our spiritual lather him whom 
St. Paul justly styles " the man of sin," usurping 
authority above God himself, (2 Thess. ii- 3, 1.) Borne 
will be likely to question; but it is not the question 
which I now propose to examine. They who arc 



4 

disposed to break from our ranks, will do us less 
injury as acknowledged Papists ; and the sooner* 
they make the change, the better for us, though I 
feat not the better lor themselves. In regard to the 
Roman religion, I desire chiefly that people may 
know fairly what it is : if any truly prefer it, 'tis a 
matter between them and their God. And when, in 
those countries, where Popery wholly predominates, 
there shall be the same toleration, the same liberty 
given to all to teach what they believe, and to read 
what they will, as with us is given to them, I shall 
never complain of their increase. That Popery has 
been instrumental of good, of great good, (if any so 
please,) I have no intention to deny, but would 
rather bless God for all good that is done. I would, 
with St. Paul, rejoice that Christ, in his true charac- 
ter and office, is preached by those even who, in 
other respects, are in error, and their motives not 
pure. The apostle did not rejoice in what was evil, 
but in the good done, — that the knowledge of 
Christ was promulgated, and souls converted to 
God. There is no denomination of sincerely reli- 
gious Christians who are not made instrumental of 
some good. But who can count the evils which 
corrupt doctrines and usurped power have pro- 
duced? We are not to follow a multitude to do 
evil, but to embrace the truth as it is in Jesus Christ, 
and leave the event with God. 

It is not, I trust, more my duty than it is my 
desire, to treat all men, and especially those who are 
of the household of faith, with due respect. And it 
will not be improper to say something of the names 
by which Christians are distinguished. It is very 
common for particular sects to assume names, or to 
be usually distinguished by denominations, as pecu- 
liar to themselves, which might as justly be applied 
to others. And, for convenience, we give them those 
names, without acknowledging their exclusive claims. 
Some people are distinguished as Deists: but they 



are far from being the only people who believe, what 
the word signifies, that there is a God. One sect of 
Christians are called Friends, and another, United 
Brethren; and yet other Christians are friends, and 
they unite as brethren. Some call themselves Uni- 
tarians, as believing in one God ; though all the 
disciples of Christ believe that there is but one true 
God. We call some Baptists, which signifies bap- 
tizers ; and, though we believe that other denomina- 
tions also baptize, we consent that this one sect 
should be so distinguished. Those of our Church 
in this country are often distinguished by the word 
Episcopalians, when nine tenths, probably, of the 
Christians in the whole world, are also Episcopalians. 
The like is true of the term catholic, which signifies 
general, liberal, universal. It is somewhat arrogant- 
ly assumed by one sect or part of the universal 
church, as exclusively appropriate to themselves ; and 
people are accustomed so to distinguish them. The 
Romish Church is usually called the Catholic Church; 
though it is but a part, and not the purest part, of 
the " One Catholic and Apostolic Church." And it 
should be always remembered that, when in the 
Apostle's Creed we profess to believe in " the Holy 
Catholic Church," we have no more regard to the 
Church of Rome than to the Church of England, or 
Russia, or Greece. We mean the whole body of 
those who, by baptism, have put on Christ, and are 
branches of him, the true Vine ; and especially those 
who " are very members incorporate in his mysti- 
cal body, — the blessed company of all faithful peo- 
ple." So far as the word means liberal, tolerant, or 
free, no church is less catholic than the Romish. 
There is, indeed, a manifest impropriety in applying 
this epithet exclusively to any one part or branch of 
the Christian church. The Church o( England, or 
America, of ( rreece, or i)( Rome, cannot, o( Itself, be 
the Catholic Church, more than a part can be the 
whole. The Romanists, indeed, claim to be the 
1* 



whole of the Church in which salvation can be 
obtained; and there are, perhaps, a few other de- 
nominations who make the like arrogant preten- 
sion^ ; but the truly catholic Christian has no such 
narrow views of that salvation which is by faith in 
Jesus Christ. 

The whole system of the Romish religion most 
essentially depends on the Papal hierarchy, or the 
power claimed by the Bishop of Rome; and the 
word Papists is, of course, the most distinguishing 
and suitable appellation of the members of that com- 
munion. And for this reason it is that I use it, and 
not from any design or feelings of disrespect. There 
is the same reason and fitness in calling them Pa- 
pists, as in calling us Prelatists or Episcopalians, 
and why the one should give any reasonable offence 
to them, more than the others to us, I cannot 
imagine. 

The purpose of what is now proposed to be offered 
on the subject of the Reformation, is not any contro- 
versy with Papists or censures of Popery ; but to 
show, (whether it be right or wrong,) what the Re- 
formation is, — in w T hat we profess to be reformed. 
What is now so confidently said, that there remains 
very little which divides us from the Romish Church, 
is, I fear, becoming the belief or view of many of 
our own people. It certainly is not merely fitting, 
but highly important, that they should be set right in 
this matter ; that they should know in what and how 
many particulars the Protestant Episcopal Church in 
the United States differs from what was generally 
held and practised in the church in the beginning of 
the sixteenth century, when the Reformation com- 
menced. 

Should it be said, that some of the particulars, 
which I may notice, are not held by the Romish 
Churchy I rejoice if it be so, and have only to say, 
that at the time immediately preceding the Reforma- 
tion, they did generally prevail, and were not, by 



popes or clergy, condemned or opposed. We fre- 
quently hear it said of this point or that, though cer- 
tainly taught and practised, where that religion fully 
prevails, is not required by their church. This seems 
to admit that such points are erroneous, and that we 
do well in rejecting them. They indeed who would 
know what popery is, should reside in the countries 
where it predominates, as in Italy, Portugal, and 
Spain. Where Protestants bear sway, as in Eng- 
land and in these United States, Romanism has a 
very different appearance. Or should it be said that 
the Romanists are, in some things, themselves re- 
formed, we believe and rejoice in it ; but we should 
not forget that this change for the better is the effect 
of the knowledge of the scriptures, and of the doc- 
trines of Christ, which the Reformation has produced ; 
and that the Romanists claim to be infallible, — to 
be free from all error, and that they never change. 
And so, too, if they give, as they very much do, 
plausible explanations, to obviate what seems to us 
objectionable, it shows that they are conscious that 
such explanations are necessary to reconcile their 
tenets to the holy scriptures, and that Protestants are 
wise in taking ground which needs no such expla- 
nation. 

That the Church of Rome, under the pontificate 
of Leo X. and several of his predecessors, was, in 
doctrine, morals, and discipline, corrupt, very few, it 
is believed, who fairly consult the history of those 
times, will, at the present day, venture to deny. By 
the churches of several countries, those corruptions 
were, in the sixteenth century, more or less rejected ; 
and some, we fear, in their zeal to remove the tares, 
have rooted up some stalks of the good wheat. It 
is enough, for our present purpose, to mention the 
Church of England, from which we emanate. As 
an independent National Church, she shook off the 
usurped authority of foreign powers, and asserted 
the liberty wherewith Christ ha^ made her free. 



8 

What shall be said in the following pages may, it is 
hoped, help some to judge whether or not a reforma- 
tion was necessary, — whether our Church has re- 
tained all that is essential to the religion of Jesus 
Christ, and has rejected any thing but what was a 
departure from the sure word of God, and was worse 
than useless. 

And here I would briefly observe, that the claims 
of differing sects to be Protestants is no better argu- 
ment against our use of the word, than their like 
claim to be believers, or Christians, or disciples of 
Christ, or members of his Church, is against our use 
of these appellations. The question is, Against 
what do we protest? If against any part of the 
truth of God, as revealed in his word, we err. I 
have,' in these remarks, no controversy with the 
Papists, nor ill-will, I humbly trust, against any de- 
nomination of Christians. I desire to love all who 
love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity and in truth. 
In my attempt to show what the Protestant Episco- 
pal Church in these United States now is, and our 
reasons for rejecting some things which other Chris- 
tians hold, no offence to any will be intended, and 
it is hoped that none will be taken. " Let every one 
be persuaded in his own mind," and " to his own 
Master let him stand or fall." Whether this our 
Church has rejected too little or too much, we invite 
a candid inquiry, and would have every one, after 
due examination, act according to his true convic- 
tions, and to the knowledge and grace given him. 

§ I. It has been before observed that the system of 
the Romish religion most essentially depends on the 
papal hierarchy, or the power claimed by the Bishop 
of Rome. Of course, it is proper that this should 
be numbered as the first among the points against 
which we protest. It was said by one writer, (if I 
mistake not, by an English bishop,) that it seems 
unreasonable that any of the Protestant Episcopal 



9 

Church should incline more to favor the Roman 
Church, " who are unsound in every thing but the 
ministry, than those Dissenters who are unsound in 
the ministry only." But, in fact, there is no other 
one point in which the Roman Church, in the view 
of Protestants, is more in error than in the ministry. 
They have set up an order of priesthood, of which 
true Christianity knows nothing, far above all other 
orders, and every thing human. The pope claims 
authority over all the ministers of Christ, of any 
grade, and indeed over all the powers of the earth, 
both civil and ecclesiastical. Of what his claims are, 
and what authority he has exercised, none who read 
ecclesiastical history can be ignorant. The Bishop 
of Arath tells us that the pope's power " interferes 
with civil liberty and independence no farther than 
the divine law puts bounds to human power, and says 
to the pride of man, Thus far shalt thou go, and here 
shalt thou break thy swelling waves." * And as the 
pope claims to be the infallible interpreter of the 
divine law, this disclaimer amounts to no more than 
that the pope interferes with the civil liberty and in- 
dependence of kingdoms and states no farther than 
what seems to him fitting. What he has in many 
instances done, and what power the Roman Church 
claims for him, is well known to all who have can- 
didly made the inquiry. My present purpose is 
but to remind the reader that it is a power against 
which we protest. We deny that God has given 
such power to any one man ; nor is there, indeed, 
any proof that Christ gave to any one of his min- 
isters such authority over the others. The papa] 
hierarchy is a power remarkably distinct from Chris- 
tianity ; the pope appoints the cardinals, and the 
cardinals elect the pope. He has various orders of 
clergy dispersed through the world, subject to him- 
self, and not to the bishops of the churches. The 

* Letter, p. 12. 



10 

popes, indeed) have uniformly endeavored, and with 
too much success, to lessen the authority of Christian 
bishops, the more to exalt their own. It is remarka- 
ble, that, when they assume that office, they renounce 
or discard the use of their Christian names, given at 
their baptism. In this, indeed, they act consistently; 
as the office is no part of Christianity, it seems fitting 
that they should not, as popes, be distinguished by 
the sacred names which would indicate their con- 
nection with the church of Christ. 

§ II. Another thing against which we protest is 
the pope's pretended power to dispose of kingdoms 
and states, and to excommunicate as heretics, all who 
deny his authority. That this he has. done in a 
number of instances, none will deny ; nor has the 
Church of Rome denied that he has this power; but 
on the contrary, has sanctioned it. To give one in- 
stance will suffice ; and let it be that which to us, as 
a Church, is the most interesting. 1 * Pius V. thus in- 
troduces his bull for deposing Queen Elizabeth : 

" He that reigneth on high, to whom is given all 
power in heaven and in earth, committed one Holy 
Catholic and Apostolic Church, out of which there is 
no salvation, to one alone upon earth, namely, to 
Peter, the chief of the apostles, and to Peter's suc- 
cessor, the Bishop of Rome, to be governed in fulness 
of power. Him alone he made prince over all peo- 
ple and all kingdoms, to pluck, destroy, scatter, con- 
sume, plant and build,''' and so forth. In virtue of 
this supreme authority given him of God, he pro- 
ceeds to excommunicate Elizabeth and all who ad- 
hered to her, and to deprive her of all title to the 
kingdom, and of all dignity and dominion. 

We should constantly bear in mind that this in- 
fallible church of which he is the sovereign, with 
such unlimited power, never changes ; it claims to 

# See, among many writers, Fuller's Church History, book ix. 
pp. 93, 94. 



11 

be free from all error. The pope would still do the 
same, if he could do it with safety, and to his own 
advantage. The light of the Reformation has, we 
know well, imposed a restraint upon the exercise of 
that power, but has effected no change in its arrogant 
claims. It is very natural, for some kings and 
princes, from their circumstances, and the superstitious 
devotion of their subjects to the papal authority, to 
submit to it through fear ; and others find it for their 
interest and security, to acknowledge the pope's 
power, as the means of securing their own. How 
far it may endanger a republican government, to 
have within its bosom, a large body of people de- 
votedly subject to their priests, and all those priests 
religiously bound and subject to a foreign power, is 
for the politician to consider. When two great 
parties shall be nearly balanced, one of them, by 
favoring the Papists, may easily succeed. How very 
much this state of things will naturally tend to 
strengthen and increase that denomination among 
us, is very evident. 

§ III. We protest, also, against any power of the 
pope to set aside or counteract the laws of God, 
such as pretending to release men from the obliga- 
tion of their solemn oaths, though God has com- 
manded that our oaths shall be performed. For an 
instance of this we may take the following further 
extract from the bull deposing Queen Elizabeth : 
" We do, out of the fulness of our apostolic power, 
declare the aforesaid Elizabeth, being a heretic, and 
a favorer of heresies, and her adherents in the 
matters aforesaid, to have incurred sentence of 
anathema, and to be cut off from the unity of the 
body of Christ. And, moreover, we do declare her 
to be deprived of her pretended title to the kingdom 
aforesaid, and of all dominion, dignity, and privilege 
whatsoever ; and also the nobility, subjects and peo- 
ple of the said kingdom, and all others which have 



12 

in any way sworn unto her, to be forever absolved 
front any such oath, and all manner of duty of do- 
minion, allegiance and obedience; as we do also, by 
authority of these presents, absolve them, and do de- 
prive the same Elizabeth, of her pretended title to 
the kingdom, and all other things above said. And 
we do command and interdict all and every noble- 
men, subjects, people and others aforesaid, that they 
presume not to obey her, or her monitions, mandates 
and laws : and those which do the contrary, we do 
innodate (innodamus) with the like sentence of 
anathema." 

Should there hereafter, in this or any other coun- 
try, be a war between Papists and Protestants, who 
can doubt but that the former would, by this same 
usurped power, be in like manner absolved from any 
oaths or laws, or allegiance, which would otherwise 
operate as a hindrance to their success? We abhor 
the Jesuitical doctrine that the end in view, if sup- 
posed to be good, justifies means in themselves 
wicked, for the gaining of that end; — that we may 
do evil that good may come. We might speak of 
unnumbered murders, massacres, assassinations, and 
other horrible crimes, which, by this diabolical prin- 
ciple, have been justified and approved. We con- 
demn the principle, and we deny the right of any 
foreign power to interfere in the concerns of this 
country, either civil or religious. No bishop of 
Rome, or of Greece, or of England, has any influ- 
ence or control, farther than that of Christian fellow- 
ship and love, over the Protestant Episcopal Church 
in these United States. 

§ IV. Another thing which Protestants reject is, 
the power of the pope, or of any human being, to 
forbid a people or nation to worship God, which is 
usually called an interdict. I cannot give the reader 
a better idea of what this means, than by citing the 
account which the historian, David Hume, gives of 



13 

the one which Pope Innocent fulminated against 
John, king of England.* " The sentence of inter- 
dict," says the historian, " was at that time the great, 
instrument of vengeance and policy employed by the 
court of Rome. It was denounced against sove- 
reigns for the slightest offences, and made the guilt 
of one person involve the ruin of millions, even in 
their spiritual and eternal welfare. The execution 
of it was calculated to strike the senses in the highest 
degree, and to operate with irresistible force on the 
superstitious minds of the people. The nation was 
of a sudden deprived of all exterior exercise of its 
religion. The altars were despoiled of their or- 
naments; the crosses, the relics, the images, the 
statues of the saints, were laid on the ground ; and, 
as if the air itself were profaned, and might pollute 
them by its contact, the priests carefully covered 
them up, even from their own approach and venera- 
tion. The use of bells entirely ceased in all the 
churches; the bells themselves were removed from 
the steeples, and laid on the ground, with the other 
sacred utensils. Mass was celebrated with shut 
doors, and none but the priests were admitted to the 
holy institution. The laity partook of no religious 
rite, except baptism to new-born infants, and the 
communion to the dying. The dead were not in- 
terred in the consecrated ground ; they were thrown 
into ditches, or buried in common fields, and their 
obsequies were not attended with prayers or any 
hallowed ceremony. Marriages -were celebrated in 
the church-yard; and, that every action in life might 
bear the marks of this dreadful situation, the people 
were- prohibited the use of meat, as in Lent, or in 
the times of highest penance, — were debarred from 
all pleasures and entertainments, and even to salute 
each other, or as much as to shave their beards, and 
give any decent attention to their persons and 

* See Chapter xi. 



14 






apparel. Every circumstance carried symptoms of 
the deepest distress, and of the most immediate ap- 
prehension of divine vengeance and indignation." 

All this extreme of Buffering and distress upon a 
whole nation, was in punishment of John's not sub- 
mitting to the will of the pope. Should any say that 
this is not now practised, we say that it was prac- 
tised and observed by an infallible pope, and the 
Roman Catholic Church. If in this they have re- 
formed, we rejoice. It is enough to add that it is 
another instance of the pope's assuming power over 
the nations of the earth, and exalting himself above 
the laws of God ; and that Protestants view it as a 
great sin, and a most abominable tyranny and abuse 
of religion. 

§ V. The manner of fasting, as practised by the 
Romanists, we cannot approve. It was predicted 
by St. Paul,* that in times then future there would 
be a departure from the faith ; among other abuses, 
commanding to abstain from meats, in consequence 
of which, fasting becomes a mere formal thing, the 
people obeying man rather than God. The priests 
command them to abstain from particular meats, or 
indulge them in eating, by their own assumed pow- 
ers, as will best promote their interest and authority. 
Our Church appoints seasons for abstinence and 
prayer ; but she pretends not to restrain us in that 
in which Christ has left us free. True religious 
fasting is a free act of devotion, in which, by abstain- 
ing from lawful enjoyments, and by earnest prayer, 
we endeavor to obtain grace to humble that pride 
which is natural to all, to subdue our sinful desires 
and worldly affections, and to become more spiritual- 
ly-minded, and more ready and disposed to every 
charitable and good work. Except our hearts are 
humbled and our lives made better by it, our fasting 

# 1 Timothy iv. 1—5. 



15 

is of no use. To think that our fasting is merito- 
rious, or to consider our abstinence in one season as 
an occasion or excuse for luxury, or rioting, or car- 
nivals, at another time, is, as the apostle says, a de- 
parting from the faith, and giving heed to seducing 
spirits ; it is an abuse of fasting. 

§ VI. We also protest against absolution, as 
practised in the Roman Catholic Church, and the 
sale of indulgences. How naturally and how much 
these, as actually practised, encourage men in sin, 
and substitute the fear of priests for the fear of God, 
I leave the reader to judge. They are among the 
points in which we profess to be reformed. 

§ VII. The canonization, as it is called, or apothe- 
osis, of some people after their death, as being saints, 
in a sense in which other Christians, who have de- 
parted in the true faith of Christ, are not saints, done 
by the assumed power of the pope, is another thing 
of which we disapprove. We deny that the pope 
has either the power or the right to make such dis- 
tinction in the characters of Christians deceased. 
So far as we can judge, some of his saints were not 
among the best of Christians ; and whether they are 
saved, even, is doubtful. They who stoutly main- 
tained the pope's power, and other peculiarities of 
the Romish Church, were the most likely to be thus 
honored; such, for instance, as the notorious Thomas 
a Becket. Mr. Southey observes, in his " Book of the 
Church," chapter x., and all history seems certainly 
to justify him in saying, that " the Greeks and Ro- 
mans attributed less to their demi-gods than the 
Roman Catholic Church has done to those of its 
members thus canonized. They were invoked as 
mediators between God and man ; individuals claim- 
ed the peculiar protection of those whose nanus 
they had received in baptism; and towns and king- 
doms chose them as their tutelary saints." The 



16 

\irtue which they were supposed to possess was 
also attributed to their images. Volumes, in proof 
of this, might be brought 

| VI II. Another practice of the Roman Church 
againsl which we protest is, their forbidding the 
ministers oi Christ to marry, according to what St. 
Paul also predicted of them, and contrary to what is 
more than merely allowed in the word of God. It 
is remarkable that, under the old dispensation in His 
Church, none but the sons of priests could be of the 
priesthood. Not only does the page of history, but 
a knowledge of human nature, teach us what must 
be the result of such a prohibition. 

§ IX. Another point in which Protestants differ 
from the Church of Rome is, the pretence of work- 
ing miracles. When God would make known his 
will to mankind, he has been pleased to give miracu- 
lous signs, to confirm our faith. These signs w r ere 
shown on such occasions, and accompanied with 
such circumstances, as to convince all who beheld 
them. I shall not now enter into the inquiry when 
miracles ceased, or whether or not God does in every 
age manifest a miraculous providence. If he does 
so, it is, no doubt, in a manner suited to his charac- 
ter and wisdom, and on occasions worthy of such 
interference ; not by the nodding of an image, or 
bleeding of a relic, nor to exalt our reverence for an 
idol, which he forbids us either to make or to wor- 
ship. True miracles will, like those wrought by 
Moses, confound impostures, and compel opposers 
to say, as did the magicians of Pharaoh, " This is 
the finger of God." * If evil spirits have still power 
of showing " lying wonders," f we may reasonably 
suppose that they will most readily do it, to em- 
bolden men to reverence images, and worship idols. 

* Exodus viiL 19. f 2 Thess. ii. 9. 



17 

In nothing has the rule of Horace (Nee deus inter sit, 
&c.) been more disregarded than in the thousands of 
pretended miracles, and false, and many of them very 
ridiculous, signs of this sort, which have disgraced 
the Christian name. Their natural tendency is to 
excite a distrust of all miracles, and to increase in- 
fidelity. 

§ X. All Protestants are, by the Romanists, de- 
nounced as heretics, however sincere may be their 
faith in Christ and the doctrines of his cross, and 
however godly may be their lives. There are not, 
it is hoped, any Protestants, of whatever denomina- 
tion, equally uncharitable ; none, we believe, of this 
our Church. 

§ XI. That there is no salvation out of their 
Church, is another of their tenets. Though some 
may attempt to deny this, nothing is more evident 
than that it has been and is generally and very much 
held up to view, and thousands and myriads have 
by this claim been frightened into their church. The 
Bishop of Arath has tried its effect on the bishops of 
the Protestant Episcopal Church. " The papal 
supremacy," he kindly tells us, " is the rock on 
which the whole edifice of Christianity rests in im- 
movable firmness. This is the essential centre of 
unity, around which all the faithful must gather, in 
harmony of faith and obedience. The will of our 
heart and of our petition to God is for you unto sal- 
vation; and we count as dross every worldly ad- 
vantage, to gain to the Catholic Church of Christ 
your souls, and the members whose eternal destinies 
are bound up with yours."* And what docs this 
mean, if not thai the salvation of Our souls, and o( all 
the members of our churches, depends on our ac- 
knowledging the papal supremacy, and thai now we 

•Letter, p. 14. 



18 

do not belong to the Church of Christ? " Who art 
thou, that judgest another man's servant?" 

§ XII. This uncharitable spirit wars with the 
dead, and extends beyond the grave. Protestants 
arc not allowed to rest in their burying-grounds. 
The mention of this will call to the reader's recollec- 
tion the pathetic complaint of the poet Young, whose 
daughter-in-law was thus, in Lyons, France, denied 
Christian burial : 

— " On a foreign shore, where strangers wept, — 

Strangers to thee, and, more surprising still, 

Strangers to kindness, wept. Their eyes let fall 

In human tears ! strange tears ! that trickled down 

From marble hearts ! obdurate tenderness ! 

A tenderness that called them more severe. 

In spite of nature's soft persuasion steeled ; 

While nature melted, superstition raved ! 

Thai mourned the dead, and this denied a grave. 

Their sighs incensed ; sighs foreign to the will ! 

Their will the tiger sucked ; outraged the storm ; 

For, O ! the cursed ungodliness of zeal ! 

While sinful flesh relented, spirit nursed. 

In blind infallibility's embrace, 

The sainted spirit petrified the breast, 

Denied the charity of dust to spread 

O'er dust ! a charity their dogs enjoy," 

We of the Protestant Episcopal Church do not 
presume to say that they are not of Christ's church, 
though we think them, in many things, erroneous ; 
and no Protestants, it is hoped, would deny them 
Christian burial, or be unwilling to sleep with them 
in the grave. In this world we would gladly unite 
with them, so far as is consistent with God's re- 
vealed word. 

§ XIII. Another and very important point in which 
we profess to be, and trust that we truly are, re- 
formed, is, in the authority and use of tradition. 
The rule of faith, according to the Roman Church, 
is not merely the written word of God, but what 



19 

they call the whole word of God, both written and 
unwritten ; in other words, Scripture and Tradition, 
and these propounded and explained by the Catholic 
Church, meaning exclusively their own as the only 
catholic church. The doctrine of our Church is, 
that " holy scripture containeth all things necessary ; 
so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be 
proved thereby, is not to be required of any man 
that it should be believed as an article of faith, or be 
thought requisite or necessary to salvation." On 
this point, our Church is very decided and express. 
Every one, and of every grade, who is ordained to 
her ministry, is required, with his own hand, to sign 
a declaration of his belief in this doctrine of the suf- 
ficiency of the scriptures. And not only this ; but 
when he is ordained with full authority " to preach the 
word of God," he solemnly declares his " persuasion 
that the holy scriptures contain all doctrine necessary 
for eternal salvation, through faith in Jesus Christ ; " 
and also his " determination out of the said scriptures 
to instruct the people committed to his charge, and 
to teach nothing as necessary to salvation but that 
which he shall be persuaded may be concluded and 
proved by the scripture." 

Much has been recently written and published 
upon this subject, to which the reader, if he is in 
doubt, is referred. We must have a standard to 
resort to ; but as no one can be more doubtful or 
contradictory than tradition, to remedy this, the 
Romish Church resorts to her infallibility. In sev- 
eral things, what is called tradition runs counter to 
the scriptures, and makes void the word of Cod. 
The one or the other must be our authoritative 
guide: we must test scripture by tradition, or tradi- 
tion by scripture. Our Church, and I believe all 
Protestants, have most decidedly taken the Latter 
ground. Some have said that the Reformation is 
without principle; if this be not principle, and of 
the highest importance, 1 have yet to Leaf!] what is. 



20 



I 



Some have urged, as an argument for the author- 
ity of tradition, that the apostles preached without 
scriptures. Any force in this argument I cannot 
perceive. Suppose this to be the fact, — that they 
preached without scriptures ; the will of God respect- 
ing man's salvation was fully revealed to them ; by 
the Holy Ghost they were inspired with the knowl- 
edge of all truth. The people had need only to 
know what they taught ; which they who heard them 
preach did of course know. What was necessary 
for others and for all future times was, that, before 
their decease, they should leave a written record of 
the life and ministry of Christ, the fulfilment of the 
prophets in him, the doctrines which by his authori- 
ty they taught, and whatever was wanting to com- 
plete the volume of God's revealed w r ord. And this 
they faithfully and in due time did, setting to it their 
seal, and pronouncing a heavy denunciation upon 
those who shall add to, or take from the words of 
that book. 

Can any one reasonably doubt whether or not the 
apostles wrote in their Epistles the same doctrines 
and other truths which they taught by their words ? 
Indeed, we have recorded a number of their dis- 
courses and other acts, and know, of course, what 
doctrines they preached, and how they exercised 
their ministry. 

But is it a fact, that the apostles preached without 
scriptures? Do we learn this from their recorded 
discourses ? Take the first sermon which they 
preached, after being endued with power from on 
high, and by which three thousand were converted 
and added to the church. Was there no text, no 
appeal to the written word of God ? Christ himself 
preached the scriptures in proof of his own character 
and authority ; and he commanded his hearers to 
search the scriptures to obtain a knowledge of their 
Saviour, and of the doctrines of eternal life. The 
hearts of two of his disciples burnt within the?n, when, 






21 

" beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he ex- 
pounded unto them, in all the scriptures, the things 
concerning himself." See, also, Luke xxiv. 44 — 48. 
And see all the discourses of the apostles. And see 
particularly what St. Paul said to King Agrippa, 
Acts xxvi. 22, 23 : " Having, therefore, obtained help 
of God, I continue unto this day, witnessing unto 
small and great, saying none other things than those 
which the prophets and Moses did say should come." 
The apostles preached the scriptures which were, by 
inspiration of God, written for their learning ; and, 
by the same inspiration, they added to the written 
word of God what was wanting to give us a full 
knowledge of the gospel, and of what we must be- 
lieve and do to obtain the salvation which is in Jesus 
Christ. 

There is in fallen man a natural disposition to 
depart from the word of God, and follow, in prefer- 
ence, the commandments of men. This was very 
much the fault of God's people under the old dis- 
pensation : they made void the law of God by their 
tradition; for which the Saviour severely reproves 
them. See Matt. xv. 1 — 9. Far from giving any 
sanction to their tradition, he condemns it, and he 
appeals to scripture : " What is written? how readest 
thou ? " Under the gospel dispensation, men are 
of like passions as they were under the Jewish ; 
and we might reasonably fear and expect that such 
tares would still be sown, — that on the true founda- 
tion of apostles and prophets, of which Jesus Christ 
is the chief corner-stone, " wood, hay, and stubble " 
would be built, — that Christians, also, would "trans- 
gress the commandments of God by their tradition*," 
which, to our great sorrow and regret, we find BO to 
be. At the time of the Reformation, Christians had 
in many things not only departed from the unerring 
standard of God's word, but had madr it roid, — had 
received doctrines and adopted practices contrary to 
the holy scriptures, as (should the Lord permit their 



23 

continuance) may hereafter be further seen in these 
remarks. 

Upon oral tradition there can be but little depend- 
ence. Almost all of our knowledge of times past is 
from the written pages of history : what concerns the 
Church is called Ecclesiastical History. From this 
we learn what have been the state and the doctrines 
and practice of the Church, from its earliest date to 
the present time. From history, we have full and 
satisfactory proof that we now have those scriptures 
which were given by inspiration of God. There is, 
from history, satisfactory evidence that we have the 
writings of uninspired men, of nearly the same age ; 
of Virgil, for instance, and Horace, and Caesar. 
The Mahometans have no reason to doubt of their 
still possessing the genuine writings of their prophet; 
and still better historical evidence have we of the 
authenticity of our Bible, without any resort to the 
divine authority of tradition, or to any infallibility of 
the Church. 

It is reasonable to suppose, and, as we search for 
the truth, to expect, that, in the earliest ages, " the 
faith once delivered to the saints" would be the 
most truly regarded ; and this does history confirm. 
Even in the apostles' days, schisms and heresies 
disturbed the church, and corruptions began to ap- 
pear. The spirit of antichrist was even then already 
in the world* In the church in Corinth were four 
denominations, though all of them, we doubt not, 
were of the one Catholic and Apostolic Church. 
The Christians in Galatia soon began to be removed 
from the gospel which Paul preached to them. And 
some of the seven churches of Asia, spoken of in 
the second and third chapters of Revelation, were 
much corrupted. But still they were all churches 
of Christ, and by Christ himself so acknowledged. 
In the second century, when the first apostles 

* 1 John iv. 3. 






23 

were all removed from the Church on the earth, cor- 
ruptions began slowly, and, at first, few in number, 
to take root in the Church. In the third and follow- 
ing ages, they increased more and more, until the 
times of the Reformation. Church history is very 
useful in its teaching at what times, and under what 
circumstances, trials, and temptations, Christians de- 
parted from the standard of the holy scriptures, and, 
like as the Jews had done before them, made void 
the law of God by their traditions. The Fathers, as 
we call them, were competent and credible witnesses 
of the facts, of which they had knowledge, and the 
transactions of the times in which they lived. Since 
the second century, we may well believe that the 
doctrines of Christ have in no age been better under- 
stood, and the holy scriptures more carefully, criti- 
cally, and prayerfully examined, than by many 
Christians at the present time. Of the erroneous 
practices which early crept into the Church, we may 
hereafter have occasion to speak. Some of them 
have since been, if I mistake not, by most, perhaps 
by all, Christians discarded : such as, baptizing 
people naked ; giving the Lord's supper to infants ; 
forbidding Christians to kneel in prayer during a 
large part of the year; not allowing unbaptized 
persons to be present at public prayers ; and delaying 
baptism till near the time of death. 

The ancient writers in the Church should be ex- 
amined as witnesses of facts, not as teachers of doc- 
trine. As one writer observes, " On questions of 
interpretation, or sacred philology, they are not of 
much weight; for it is well known thai either their 
attainments in biblical literature were small, or thai 
their principles of philology were, to a great extent, 
fluctuating and unsound." Ceremonies which the 
fathers have introduced, if useful, may, because 
useful, be continued ; but we cannot be too cautious 
not to Le1 their supposed authority sanction the prac- 
tice of what is at variance with the scriptures, In 



94 



deed, nothing good should be rejected because it 
has, by other denominations, whether Papist or 
Protestant, been invented or in use ; and, on the 
other hand, nothing superstitious or at variance with 
(iod's word may. lor its antiquity, be safely followed. 
It is somewhat amusing to see, in some late publica- 
tions, reasons urged, with apparent seriousness, to 
show that the Protestant Episcopal Church has a 
right to claim or adopt prayers long used by the 
Roman Church ; as if it could be a matter of doubt 
whether any church or individual may or may not 
adopt or use any prayers, new or old. which are 
suitable and proper. 

Some have referred to the Apostle's Creed, as an 
evidence of the great use of tradition. And what do 
we learn from that Creed, which we do not much 
better learn from the holy scriptures ? except it be 
the descent into helL which was not added to the 
Creed till several centuries after the apostolic age. 
Several of the most important doctrines of Christian- 
ity are not found in that Creed ; and a great part of 
the Twelve Articles which it does contain cannot be 
rightly and fully understood without resort to the 
written word of God. On this subject, should the 
Lord permit, something more may hereafter be said. 

And what is there essential to Christianity, taught 
us by tradition, which we do not find in the word of 
God? Is it Episcopacy? or Confirmation? or the 
Covenant and Membership of Infants in the Church? 
or observing the " first day of the week," as "the 
Lord's day?" or using written forms in social wor- 
ship ? or the sacraments ordained by Christ ? The 
best and most satisfactory proofs of all these we find 
in the scriptures, and were they not there found 
more less clearly recorded, we should not insist upon 
them as an essential part of Christianity. We re- 
joice to find these things confirmed by the practice 
of the early Christians, but we receive them on the 
authority of the sure word of God. 






25 

§ XIV. The right of private judgment in religion, 
in contradistinction to the supposed authority of the 
church to decide for all its members what they must 
believe and do to be saved, is among the most im- 
portant points wherein we differ from the Church of 
Rome. This authority some attempt to prove from 
the words of our Saviour : " The Scribes and the 
Pharisees sit in Moses' seat; all, therefore, which 
they bid you observe, that observe and do." The 
word of God will best explain itself. Much injury 
is done to the cause of truth, by wresting particular 
passages from their true sense, or by ascribing to 
them meaning which was not intended. In these 
words, our Saviour taught the people to reverence 
those who were authorized to be their rulers and to 
make laws for the government of the people. He 
does not tell them to believe all that the Scribes and 
Pharisees should teach as doctrine ; but to do and 
observe what they should prescribe as rules of life. 
Those same Scribes and Pharisees had made void 
the law of God by their traditions and by their erro- 
neous teaching. In this same chapter (Matt, xxiii.) 
and same discourse, our Lord severely reproves them 
for having taught doctrines contrary to God's word. 
(See verses 16 — 22.) Can any one believe that our 
Lord intended that the people should receive then- 
false doctrine respecting the solemnity and obligation 
of oaths ? No ; he corrects their doctrine, and shows 
what should be received. He calls them blhid 
guides ; and he elsewhere says that they who follow- 
ed those " blind leaders of the blind " would fall. 
And how did the apostles understand our Saviour? 
Did they, in regard to doctrine, observe and do as 
those blind leaders bid them? On the contrary, 
when the Scribes and Pharisees sot in council, which 
was most truly Moses' seat, and wi commanded the 
apostles not to speak at all, nor teach in the name o( 
Jesus," the apostles told them boldly that they should 
continue thus to preach, and thai it was their duty to 
3 



26 

obey God rather than man. The true doctrine has 

our Church embodied in her XXth Article : " 

It ifl not lawful tor the Church to ordain any thing 
that is contrary to God's word written : neither may 
it so expound one place of scripture that it be repug- 
nant to another.' 1 

In examining this question, resort is sometimes 
had to the infallibility of the Church ; which may 
hereafter require some consideration. And sup- 
posing that somewhere there is such infallibility, how 
shall a man find it, but by searching- for himself? 
We are to search for the old ways; and who is to 
search, if not he who desires to find them ? We 
will suppose that a man is inquiring, (and every 
man should inquire.) What is truth ? What is the 
will of God respecting man here on the earth ? 
Where shall wisdom be found ? What must I do 
to obtain immortal life ? He looks around and sees 
various teachers crying, " Lo here and lo there," and 
doctrines contradictory prevailing throughout the 
world. How shall he decide on which to rely as 
sound and safe ? How, but by exercising the rea- 
son, and by using the means of knowledge which he 
has or may have ? Or shall he rather rely upon his 
teachers, and adhere, without examination, to the 
system in which he has been educated, or adopt as 
certainly true the religion of those among whom he 
lives ? Shall he continue a Pagan or a Jew, a 
Mahometan or a Christian, without inquiring for 
himself which is according to the truth of God ? Or 
suppose that there is some one in this our country, 
who is awakened to righteousness — who believes in 
Christ, and sincerely desires to be a member of his 
church : must he remain a member of the society or 
sect or denomination among whom he finds him- 
self? or should he not rather search the scriptures 
and the history of the church in ages past, that he 
may be satisfied which denomination has the best 
claim to orthodoxy ? whether the Greek, which is the 



27 

oldest, or the Roman, which is most numerous, or 
the Protestant, which is the most scriptural and 
apostolic? And suppose even that he has made 
this decision — he is a fixed and satisfied member 
of a church ; must he make no further inquiry ? must 
he not search for himself, but receive whatever is 
taught by his church, or its ministers, as certainly 
true ? How was it in the first century ? "We read 
of the Bereans, who heard the words of life from in- 
spired teachers, that, after they had readily received 
the word, " they searched the scriptures daily, whether 
those things were so." And for doing this they are 
highly commended. How different from this is the 
practice of that church which takes the scriptures 
from the people, not allowing them to search whether 
the things taught them are agreeable to the word of 
God ! What Christ said to some, he says to us all : 
" Search the scriptures ; for in them ye think ye have 
eternal life ; and they are they which testify of me." 
And how shall any one become wise unto salvation, 
if he do not search the scriptures ? If a man would 
know what is the character of his Saviour — what 
he has done to redeem mankind — what are the 
doctrines of his cross — who are truly his ministers 
— and where his church may be found, — the man 
must inquire for himself. How else can he give to 
every one who asketh a reason of the hope that is in 
him ? If tradition were to decide, to know where 
and what tradition is would require very careful in- 
vestigation. If the church is to decide, every de- 
nomination of Christians claim to be truly the church, 
and he must remain where he is, or search for a 
better way. God's word requires him to " try the 
spirits, whether they are of God ; " to " prove all 
things, and hold fast that which is good." 

It is objected to the righl of private judgment, thai 
divisions will be the consequence, and thai Protest- 
ants are divided. This must be ascribed to the 
frailty or corruption of mankind. This evil com- 



28 

menced, as we have seen, in the apostles' days ; and 
in the two centuries following, there were more sects 
and heresies, in proportion to the numbers of Chris- 
tians, and in their doctrines and creeds more extrava- 
gant, abominable, and absurd, than what exists at 
the present day. The ancient churches now existing 
differ one from another ; as the Greek, the Roman, 
the Syrian, the Armenian, Novatian, Nestorian, &c. ; 
but we trust, though more or less in error, they are 
all of the one Catholic Church, built on the founda- 
tion of apostles and prophets, having Jesus Christ, 
the Son of God and only Saviour of men, for its 
chief corner-stone. The Romish Church within her- 
self has been much divided. She has had her 
Scotists and Thomists, her Jansenists and Jesuits — 
her rival popes — her disputes about the immaculate 
conception ; one part of the church thundering de- 
crees against another. Even where her infallibility 
resides, and where it is to be found, she cannot her- 
self decide. And how, we should also inquire, has 
that church maintained the degree of union which 
it does preserve ? How, but by its intolerance and 
carnal weapons ? Let history say how Protestantism 
was suppressed in France and the Netherlands, in 
Italy and Spain. " When the strong man armed 
thus keeps his palace, his goods are in peace." It 
is a sure way to make all of one profession, to kill 
those who dissent from it. And let it also be con- 
sidered with what watchful care, and a spirit how 
intolerant, she debars her members of the means of 
knowledge, not permitting them to read, and search, 
and inquire for themselves what the scriptures teach, 
or Protestants truly believe. While they read and 
hear on one side only, prejudice and bigotry must 
usurp the place of charity and truth. And suppose 
that, as the Bishop of Arath proposes, Protestants 
should unite with Rome ; would the church then be 
united? Will the other ancient churches above 
named, who are very numerous, and the church in 



29 

Russia, come into the same union, and submit also 
to the " papal supremacy ? " If we think it our duty 
to conform in all things with some ancient church, 
why not with the Greek, which is much less corrupt ? 
The truth is, that to unite with any church in what 
is opposed to God's word, is itself a sin, and what 
nothing can justify. Schism is a great evil, and 
should be conscientiously avoided. But heresy, or 
departing from the truth of God, is worse. Nothing 
will more truly unite men in religion, than the ren- 
ovation of their hearts by the grace of God, and a 
sound and holy faith in Jesus Christ. This spirit 
of unity may be possessed by those who do not 
externally commune together in this world. We 
had better, indeed, be divided into many denomina- 
tions, than to unite in what is false and unscriptural. 
The many corruptions which have crept into the 
church are of themselves a good proof of the vast 
importance of our faithfully exercising the right of 
private judgment, that we may try these spirits. 

It may be well here to repeat what has been so 
often repeated, — that reforming a church is not 
making' a church. Rejecting what is false, makes 
no change in what is true. A church may be both 
corrupt and divided, as was the church of Corinth, 
and yet continue to be a church. There was a time 
when God's church in Israel was so very corrupt, 
that the prophet Elijah thought that he was the only 
one who did not unite with the others in bowing to 
idols; but he determined, though, as he thought, 
alone, to reject what was false, and hold fast to 
what was true. Happily, he was not alone; there 
were, at that very time, seven thousand Protestants, 
So, too, had Joshua, before him, protested against 
the idolatries of God's chosen peoph 4 , and solemnly 
declared thai, though all the others worshipped 
idols, he and his house would serve none hut the 
true God. And so should Christians still refuse to 
bow to an image, and to worship a piece of bread, 

3* 



30 






though in consequence they must, as thousands have 
done, suffer martyrdom. 

§ XV, Denying the scriptures to the people is also 
by Protestants condemned. It is directly contrary 
to the command of Christ, who bids us " search the 
scriptures," that we may have a saving faith in him 
our Saviour. In his discourses, he evidently sup- 
poses that his hearers had read the scriptures, as no 
doubt they had J and he appeals to them according- 
ly, as did also his apostles. " What saith the scrip- 
tures?" is a question which they put to the people, 
St. Paul tells the Romans, " Whatsoever things 
were written aforetime, were written for our learn- 
ing, that we, through patience and comfort of the 
scriptures, might have hope." And to Timothy he 
writes, " All scripture is given by inspiration of 
God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for 
correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the 
man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished 
unto all good works." And he speaks of it as a 
great blessing to Timothy, that " from a child he 
had known those holy scriptures which were able to 
make him wise unto salvation."* We have already 
seen the high commendation bestowed upon the 
Bereans, who, when they had inspired apostles for 
their teachers, still searched the scriptures daily for 
themselves, that they might know the certainty of 
those things wherein they had been instructed. 
And we are informed, too, of the happy effects of 
this their " noble " conduct : " Therefore, many of 
them believed." Through the comfort of the scrip- 
tures, they had hope. No other book on earth has 
such comfort to give. What claim have they to 
freedom or independence, who dare not read this 
word of God but by the permission of a priest ? 

The policy of this prohibition is evident. If 

2 Timothy iii. 15—17. 



31 

people search the scriptures, they will be likely to 
see wherein many have departed from the word of 
God. From the same policy, other books are for- 
bidden. The Papists will not allow their people to 
be present at Protestant worship, — not even at 
family prayers. This is among the means by 
which their boasted unity is maintained. To keep 
them in ignorance, is the surest way to preserve im- 
plicit faith and blind subjection. 

§XVI. The claim of the Romish Church to 
Infallibility we view as very false and presumptu- 
ous. That it is false, her many errors, and de- 
parture in so many things from the word of God, 
abundantly prove. A knowledge, indeed, of our 
fallen nature, might prepare us to expect that the 
church which has erred the most, should most confi- 
dently claim to be free from error. Of the merits of 
this claim, I leave them to judge who read her 
history. Councils, even of the ancient church, con- 
sisted of individual, fallible men, subject to err; 
and that they sometimes did err, " even in things 
pertaining unto God," is too evident in their clash- 
ing, contradictory decrees. " Wherefore," as our 
Church said in her XXIst Article, " things ordained 
by them as necessary to salvation, have neither 
strength nor authority, unless it may be declared 
that they are taken out of the holy scriptures." It 
is enough for my present purpose to add, that the 
Protestant Episcopal Church makes no such claim 
of freedom from error, and she protests against such 
claim in any other church. 

§XVII. On the doctrine of Human Merit we 
differ essentially from the Church of Rome, She 
holds that men may merit salvation by their good 
works. We believe thai our works, wrought through 

faith in Christ, and in obedience to God'a command, 
are pleasing to him, and are an evidence o( onr faith 



92 

and sanetifieation, and they strengthen our hope of 
being accepted in the Beloved, and blest in heaven ; 
but we ascribe no merit to man which entitles him 
to claim salvation as his right or due : nor, indeed, 
dare we »j erf ourselves, or of the best saint on 
earth, that he is so sanctified as to live wholly with- 
out sin. The best Christians come short of what 
(rod's perfect law requires, and daily have need of 
repentance. •• If we say that we have no sin. we 
deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." We 
boast of no perfection, and we see no merits but in 
Jesus Christ. •• By grace ye are saved through 
faith ; and that not of yourselves : it is the gift of 
God ; not of works, lest any man should boast." * 

§ XVIII. Connected with their doctrine of Hu- 
man Merit is that of Supererogation : or that man 
can do, and that the saints have done, more good 
works than what is necessary to their own salvation. 
These meritorious works they suppose to be collect- 
ed into one vast treasury, of which the pope claims 
to have the key, and the power of dispensing it to 
the good and salvation of whom he pleases. That 
it may pass the more current, they add to this treas- 
ury the merits of Jesus Christ, which may seem to 
render it inexhaustible. But that the saints have 
added any thing to it, or have merits sufficient to 
save themselves, or that the pope has authority, 
more than any other minister of Christ, to say who 
may or may not partake of Christ's merits, we 
utterly deny. 

The most of these points I mention briefly, and 
would that the reader should bear it still in memory, 
that my object is not to refute what we deem to be 
the errors of Popery : in that case, there would be 
very much to be said ; but to show, what probably 
at the present day is not generally known nor well 

Ephesians ii. 8. 



33 

considered, how many and how important are the 
particulars against which we protest, with some few 
of the reasons of the hope that is in us. As I am 
informed, from high authority, that there are some 
who are likely soon to break from our ranks, except 
we seasonably or soon submit to the papal suprema- 
cy, I wish that they may do it with their eyes open, 
and that others may judge whether or not it will be 
wise to follow them. 

§ XIX. From the little said under the two last 
heads, the reader will be prepared to hear, and will 
scarce need to be reminded, that, on the great and 
very essential doctrine of Justification, the Protestant 
Episcopal Church differs materially from the Church 
of Rome. But, considering that another of the 
bishops of our Church has recently published an 
able and full vindication of our doctrine on this mo- 
mentous subject, it will suffice here to mention it 
as among the doctrines in which we profess to be 
reformed. 

§ XX. The next that I would mention is their 
doctrine of Purgatory, which is among the most 
profitable, (in a pecuniary view,) of the tenets of 
the Romish Church. The money which it has 
brought and still brings into the coffers of that church 
is incalculable. 

It is my earnest desire not to misrepresent the 
tenets of any denomination of Christians, and not 
to say any thing to increase the differing opinions 
by which the members of the " One Catholic and 
Apostolic Church " are unhappily in this world 
divided; but on the contrary, would willingly make 
any concessions, which the truth of God will admit, 
to promote unity among the disciples of Christ. 
The doctrine of Purgatory, as held by the Roman- 
ists, is, in itself, were it true, of such immense im- 
portance to mankind, and in its practical results, as 



34 

by them used, of such interest and deep concern, 
thai evidently it ought not to be admitted, without 
clear, direct, and certain proof by revelation from 
God. But so obscure and unsatisfactory are the 
proofs alleged in support of this doctrine, that its 
advocates are very cautious in explaining it, and I 
desire to be equally cautious in stating what it is 
that they hold and teach. It is, so far as I can un- 
derstand what they teach on the subject, a place 
where the just, or they who depart in the grace of 
God, expiate those venial sins which do not merit 
eternal punishment ; that the redemption of Christ is 
from eternal punishment only ; that the greater part 
of good Christians remain in that place of torment 
a time, how long is not decided, and suffer torments 
similar, while they continue, to those which the 
damned endure. The uncertainty of the time ren- 
ders the doctrine more profitable to the priests ; for 
they hold, further, that the treasury of the good works 
which the saints have done, beyond what was neces- 
sary to save themselves, is available for the benefit 
of souls in purgatory, and may be applied to short- 
en those sufferings, under the direction and control 
of popes and priests, and according to the money 
given to purchase prayers and masses for the dead. 
The heathen, before the advent of Christ, believed 
in a state similar to purgatory, and when converted 
to Christianity it is more than probable that they 
were instrumental in introducing the belief of it 
among Christians. Some early Christian writers 
use obscure expressions respecting an intermediate 
state, of souls departed, but a state very different 
from the popish purgatory, of which Protestants 
deny that there is any good proof. We deny also 
that there is any good authority for their distinction 
between sins mortal and venial. We believe that 
the penitent believer in Christ may fully trust in his 
one sacrifice for sin, and depart this life in peace 
with God. For the use, or rather the very great 



35 

abuse, which has been and still is made of this 
doctrine, the reader is referred to the history of the 
church during the last five hundred years. 

Let us suppose, what is no uncommon case, that 
a poor woman loses a brother or a husband ; if by 
any means she can get, say a dollar, and give it to a 
priest, it relieves her relation from purgatory for a 
time, say a month; after which the money musi 
again be given, or the sufferings will be continued 
God forbid that I should treat or think of such a 
subject with any lightness. But it is evidently a 
matter for serious inquiry, whether the relief in such 
case obtained is from the former or from the latter 
part of the sufferings. Whether the soul is taken 
out of purgatory for one month, and afterwards, if 
no money is given, is returned back to the place of 
torment; or whether it shortens the whole period one 
month, — reduces, say one thousand months of suf- 
fering to nine hundred and ninety-nine. There are 
many insuperable difficulties in this doctrine besides 
its want of proof. They are wisest and safest, who, 
while living, look for mercy and justification through 
him who is their only "Advocate with the Father," 
and place no trust in masses, or in the piety of 
friends after their decease. 

§ XXI. The doctrine of what is called Transub- 
stantiation is, of itself, an insuperable barrier to the 
communion of Protestants with the Church of 
Rome. For that church maintains that the bread 
and wine used in the sacrament of the Lord's sup- 
per are, by the consecration of their priest, changed 
and converted into the real body and blood o( Christ; 
so entirely changed, thai, notwithstanding what all 
our senses deelare to ihe contrary, nothing of the 
Substance of the bread or wine remains! and not 
into Christ's body and blood only, but (what seems 
almost blasphemy to Utter) into his human soul and 
his divinity! that merely by speaking these few 



36 

words, " This is my body/' a piece of bread is 
changed to the true and eternal God, and as such is 
to be worshipped! All who do not believe this, 
that church anathematizes and declares to be ac- 
cursed ; and for the denying of it, myriads of faithful, 
pious Christians have suffered martyrdom, and 
rivers of righteous blood have been shed upon the 
earth. A greater insult to common sense and abuse 
of the credulity of mankind than this cannot be 
imagined. 

That these words of our Saviour, in the institution 
of the sacrament, do not necessarily mean such a 
change, or any change of the substance of the bread 
and wine, is evident from the like use of language 
in many other parts of the scriptures: as when in 
Daniel it is said, " The ten horns are ten kings;" 
that is, they represent or signify ten kings. So in 
our Lord's parable of the tares he says, " The good 
seed are the children of the kingdom." St. Paul 
says, " They drank of that rock which followed 
them ; and that rock ivas Christ ; " it typified or sym- 
bolized Christ. And in the Revelation, " The seven 
stars are the angels of the seven churches : the seven 
candlesticks are the seven churches." A rock is not 
literally Christ, nor is a horn a king, nor a candle- 
stick a church ; but they fitly represent those things, 
as does also the broken bread, Christ's mangled 
body, — and wine, his blood. So is Christ said to 
be " the Lamb of God," as having been symbolized 
in the lamb slain for the Passover ; but he is not a 
lamb, except in a figurative or spiritual sense. 

And who does not know that this manner of 
speaking, naming a thing as being what it repre- 
sents, is among all people common ? Suppose that 
several persons are viewing a picture of the holy 
family, and one of them, pointing with his finger, 
should say, " That is Joseph, and that is Mary, and 
that is the child Jesus ; " would they not all under- 
stand him to mean that those persons were repre- 



37 

senied in the picture? would not that manner of 
expression be wholly unexceptionable? would any 
one of a thousand be so absurd as to understand him 
-as saying that what they saw was not paint and 
canvass, but two living parents and their child? 
And can we with any more reason believe that, 
when Christ said, " This is my body," he meant to 
tell the disciples that he held his own body in his 
hand ? All our senses assure us that the bread, after 
consecration, still remains what it was before, with- 
out any change of its substance. That manner of 
expression proves no such change, because, with the 
utmost fairness and reason, it may be understood as 
meaning that the bread represents his body, and the 
cup (or wine in the cup) his blood. Indeed, if the 
words must be taken literally, the cup (not the wine) 
is changed into blood. 

Hear, also, what St. Paul saith : " As often as ye 
eat this bread [not body] and drink this cup, [not 
blood,] ye do show [or commemorate] the Lord's 
death." And, again, " We are all partakers of that 
one bread" This doctrine, that man can so easily 
make him who is the Maker of all things, and with- 
out whom was nothing made, however it may exalt 
the priesthood, is by Protestants viewed as awfully 
profane and idolatrous. What is held by our Church 
is in her standards clearly taught. 

Transubstantiation has, by way of proof, been 
compared with our Lord's miracle of changing water 
to wine. And are they similar? After the change, 
did it still, to the senses of men, appear as water? 
On the contrary, it appeared to the taste and other 
senses as wine, and the best of wine. The ruler of 
the feast, having tasted it, complimented the bride- 
groom for its excellence. 

And supposing thai Christ's words were to be 

understood in their most Literal sense; what are his 

words? "This is my bodyfl He does not bay, 

This is my soul } or spirit, or divinity; nor has any 

4 



6 



38 

man the shadow of authority for saying that such 
was his meaning. If it be said, (and some do say) 
that these cannot be separated, then we virtually say, 
with some ancient heretics, that Christ did not die 
but in appearance only. For what is the death of 
man. if not the separation of his soul and spirit from 
the body ? But Ave are told, of a certainty, that he 
did die ; and, indeed, his death is what we com- 
memorate in that sacrament. His words are, " This 
is my body, which is given for you ; " * " .... my 
body, which is broken for you : " f " given " and 
" broken " in his death, which was his sacrifice for 
our sins. And he adds, " Do this [eat this bread] 
in remembrance of me." The ordinance is com- 
memorative, — that we may have in continual re- 
membrance this inestimable benefit, — that we may 
never forget that, whilst w^e were yet sinners, Christ 
died for us — that he put away sin by the sacrifice of 
himself. And if with a true failh we discern his 
body, the sacramental benefits of that " one sacrifice 
for sin " will be sanctified, or spiritually applied, 
to the benefit of our souls. It also becomes an as- 
surance to us that we are truly members incorporate 
in the mystical body of that church which is the 
blessed company of all faithful people. Our Church 
truly says that " the body and blood of Christ are 
spiritually taken and received by the faithful in the 
Lord's supper." All the benefits of our Lord's body, 
given and broken for our sins, which we need or 
can receive, are mercifully accounted to us in and 
by this obedience of faith thus w T orking by love, and 
keeping the commandments of God. Our Church 
teaches that, by duly receiving these holy mysteries, 
the faithful soul is strengthened and refreshed by the 
body and blood of Christ; and has given all the 
explanation of this mystery which we need ; and the 
many attempts to explain it farther do but "darken 
counsel by words without knowledge." 

* Luke xxii. ID. f 1 Cor. xi. 24. 



39 

And the like may we say of the wine in the eu- 
charist. Christ says, " This is my blood, which is 
shed for you " — which is shed for many. We com- 
memorate that blood only which was "shed" — 
which fell from his body to the ground. And what 
else is meant by shedding blood? And does any 
one believe that Christ's blood, after falling to the 
ground and mingling with earth, returned back into 
his veins and arteries, and that the same blood is 
now in his glorified body? Christ took our nature, 
and was made perfect man, of the seed of Abraham. 
His body and blood were human, like ours. " But 
flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, 
neither doth corruption inherit incorruption." When 
Christ rose from the dead, and till his ascension, he 
appeared to men in the same body which he had 
offered in sacrifice ; otherwise, there would not have 
been the necessary evidence of his resurrection, nor 
would he have " become the first fruits of them who 
sleep " in the grave. But are we to suppose that he 
now has such flesh and blood as he had while on 
earth, continually circulating and changing, and re- 
quiring food and breath to support life ? The scrip- 
tures teach that he has now a spiritual and glorified 
body, and that our bodies, in the resurrection, shall 
also be changed. While on earth, his body was 
like unto ours ; after death, ours shall be like unto 
his. " This corruptible shall put on incorruption " — 
"shall be made like unto his own glorious body." * 

If, then, the bread were actually changed into the 
body given and broken and the blood shed in his 
death, they would not be God, nor lawful objects of 
religious worship. If we had now a lock of our 
Saviour's hair, it would be idolatrous to worship it ; 
we arc forbidden to worship any created being 01 
thing: "God only shall thou serve," In the sacra- 
ment we do not commemorate thai "glorified body" 

# 1 Cor. xv. DO, 35—54 



40 

of Christ which now (probably without human " flesh 
and blood") sits at the right hand of God, united in 
oik 4 Person with his divinity; but that body which 
suffered the excruciating agonies of death — which 
mangled with nails, and pierced with a spear, 
and afterwards laid lifeless in the tomb. 

We may observe, further, that Christ's body can- 
not see corruption ; but the sacramental bread does 
and soon see corruption. And we may well ask 
those who maintain the doctrine of Transubstantia- 
tion, how long after it is eaten does what seems to be 
bread remain the body of Christ ? and in what stage 
of digestion does it cease to be so ? And when eaten 
by dogs, or mice, or worms, do they eat Christ's 
material body ? 

So we may truly say that the wine, after consecra- 
tion, contains alcohol, and will intoxicate those who 
drink much of it. Does not, then, the substance of 
the wine remain ? Or will they profanely say that 
it is the blood of Christ which intoxicates the brain, 
causes drunkenness, and makes men worse than 
brutes ? 

We may add, that Christ's sacrifice was one, per- 
fect and complete, not needing to be repeated ; but 
the Papists hold that it is offered many times. His 
sacrifice, too, was for all mankind ; they make it an 
offering for one only, or for a few individuals. 

This section alone would be sufficient to show 
the necessity of the Reformation. 

§ XXII. In the last section was mentioned our 
protest against the doctrine of the Papists respecting 
the nature of the sacrament called the Lord's supper : 
in the present, I would say something of their 
manner of administering, or rather of not administer- 
ing it ; of their giving the bread only to the people, 
and reserving the wine for the priests. In conse- 
crating the bread, they depart, as if designedly, from 
the example of Christ, who took the bread and brake 



41 

it. This is a very significant act, and essential to a 
right consecration of the bread. Our Church so 
deems it, and accordingly directs the minister, while 
saying the words, to brake the bread. This the Pa- 
pists do not; but give a small, unbroken cake or 
wafer to each communicant. Of course, the sacra- 
ment does not, to them, signify (to use St. Paul's 
words) that they are " all partakers of that one bread" 
or one loaf; each of them has a loaf or cake to him- 
self. 

But one of their grossest and seemingly wilful 
departures from the institution of Christ is, giving 
but one half of what he has commanded to be given; 
that is, the bread only. " Drink ye all of this," is as 
essential to the institution as the words, " this is my 
blood." Christ has never said that the bread is his 
blood, nor that, in any way or sense, it signifies or 
symbolizes his blood. Of course, giving the bread 
without the wine is no more a sacrament of Christ, 
than would be giving the wine without the bread ; 
or would be baptizing in the name of the Father, 
omitting the names of the Son and of the Holy 
Ghost. St. Paul's words, twice used, " Eat this 
bread and drink this cup" * show (if any one can 
doubt of it) that the apostles gave both. It would 
have been strange indeed, had they, the inspired 
teachers of divine truth, thus mutilated a holy ordi- 
nance of their divine Master. It is difficult to 
imagine why the pope should, in this and other in- 
stances, so needlessly and boldly sanction direct 
departures from God's word, except (to use scrip- 
tural language) these things are done that the scrip- 
tures should be fulfilled, spoken by the apostle St. 
Paul of " that man of sin, who opposeth and 
exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that 
is worshipped; so that he, as i\(n\, sitteth in the 
temple of God, showing himself thai he is God."f 

• l Cor. xi. 96, 27. +2 These, lv.3,4. 

v 



42 

It may be of use and some satisfaction to the 
reader to make here an extract from " A Discourse 
on the Nature and Design of the Eucharist, or Sacra- 
ment of the Lord's Supper," by the Rev. Dr. Adam 
Clarke, author of the Commentary on the Holy 
Bible, pp. 40, etc. New York edition. 

" Perhaps," he says, " to many of my readers, it 
may appear utterly improbable, that in the present 
enlightened age, as it is called, any people can be 
found who seriously and conscientiously believe the 
doctrine of Transubstantiation. Lest I should fall 
under the charge of misrepresentation, I shall here 
transcribe the eighth lesson of the c Catechism for 
the use of all the Churches in the French Empire/ 
published in 1806, by the authority of the emperor, 
Napoleon Bonaparte, with the bull of the pope, and 
the mandamus of the Archbishop of Paris : 

' Q. What is the sacrament of the eucharist ? 

'A. The eucharist is a sacrament which contains 
really and substantially the body, blood, soul, and 
divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ, under the forms 
or appearance of bread and wine. 

i Q. What is at first put on the altar and in the 
chalice ? is it not bread and wine ? 

i A. Yes ; and it continues to be bread and wine 
till the priest pronounces the words of consecration. 

i Q. What influence have these words? 

'A. The bread is changed into the body, and the 
wine into the blood, of our Lord. 

' Q. Does nothing of the bread and wine remain ? 

'-A. Nothing of them remains except the forms. 

' Q. What do you call the forms of bread and 
wine? 

'A That which appears to our senses, — the color, 
figure, and taste. 

1 Q. Is there nothing under the form of bread, 
except the body of our Lord ? 

i A. Besides his body, there is his blood, his soul, 
and his divinity. 



43 

' Q. And under the form of wine ? 

'A. Jesus Christ is there as entire as under the 
form of bread. 

' Q. When the forms of the bread and wine are 
divided, is Christ divided? 

'A. No ; Jesus Christ remains entire under each 
part of the form divided. 

'Q. Say in a word ivhat Jesus Christ gives us 
under each form. 

'A. All that he is ; that is, perfect God and per* 
feet man, 

' Q. Does Jesus Christ leave heaven, to come into 
the eucharist ? 

i A. No ; he always continues at the right hand 
of God, his Father, till he shall come at the end of 
the world, with great glory, to judge the living and 
the dead. 

i Q. Then how can he be present at the altar ? 

'A. By the almighty power of God. 

' Q. Then it is not man that works this miracle ? 

'A. No ; it is Jesus Christ, whose word is em- 
ployed in the sacrament. 

< Q. Then it is Jesus Christ who consecrates ? 

'A. It is Jesus Christ who consecrates ; the priest 
is only his minister. 

' Q. Must, we ivorship the body and blood of Jesus 
Christ in the eucharist ? 

'A. Yes, undoubtedly ; for this body and this 
blood are inseparably united to his divinity.' 

" Volumes maybe quoted to the same effect; but 
it is hoped that the above will suffice to show that I 
have in nothing misrepresented this doctrine, as gen- 
erally and very strenuously held by the Papists." 

In regard to what, is in the above Catechism 
declared, that Jesus Christ is entire under each part 

of the bread and wine, however divided, I would 
add to what was said in § XXL, that it is the belief 
of Protestants that the spirit, the divinity of Christ is 
in all places and every w here ; but that a human 



n 



A tVlO 



body, or any one particle of matter, can be at the 
same time in several places, seems to me as impossi- 
ble as that two added to two should amount to two 
only. Christ is spiritually, and to all intents and 
purposes of our need, for " the strengthening and 
refreshing of our souls by his body and blood," 
present in all places where this sacrament is rightly 
administered. There may be two or more bodies 
exactly alike ; but how they can be identical and but 
one, no one can imagine, and no one is of God re- 
quired to believe such a direct contradiction. Christ 
positively declares (John xiv. 23) that he, with his 
Father, will make his abode with them who love 
him and keep his words. This is truly effected by 
the Holy Ghost, which is " the Spirit of the Father," 
" the Spirit of the Son," " the Spirit of Christ," and 
which dwells with good Christians ; but if the body 
of Christ cannot, in any one place, be separate from 
his spirit, then his material body is in every good 
Christian as much as it is in the bread and wine of 
the Lord's supper. 

It will not, I trust, be deemed unsuitable to ob- 
serve here, that Henry VIII. of England, who is 
sometimes and very erroneously spoken of as a 
Protestant, was a rigid Papist in all but the pope's 
supremacy, which, from political, and, we may fear, 
selfish views, he discarded. Transubstantiation was 
chief among the " six articles," for the denying of 
which so many of those who were truly Protestants 
were, in his reign, cruelly persecuted. The wicked- 
ness of Henry, as did the treason of Judas Iscariot, 
and the persecutions which the apostles suffered, 
" turned out for the furtherance of the gospel." The 
wisdom of God brings good from evil ; by his over- 
ruling providence, he makes the wrath of man to 
praise him, and all things to work together for the 
good of his people. It is much the practice of the 
Papists to stigmatize and blacken the motives and 
moral character of those who were any way instru- 



45 

mental in promoting the Reformation ; and Protes- 
tants are not free from the like fault. It proves 
nothing on either side, but the want of that charity 
which " rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the 
truth." One might expect that the belief of the 
Papists, that the greater part of their own communi- 
cants are, immediately after death, sent to purgatory, 
to be punished with torments beyond what language 
can express, would make them cautious how they 
magnify the faults of others ; that they would re- 
member (and God grant that we may all remember) 
the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, " Judge 
not, that ye be not judged ; for with what judgment 
ye judge, ye shall be judged, and with what meas- 
ure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again." 

There is no one thing that I more desire on earth, 
than to see Christians united in this life, before they 
depart to that eternal world in which they hope to 
live together in perfect harmony and love. Neither 
the piety nor the wickedness of a few individuals 
proves the orthodoxy or the heresy of the church or 
the sect to which they belong. We must resort " to 
the law and to the testimony." We must " let God 
be true, and every man a liar." We are all con- 
cluded under sin ; and the best saint on earth, far 
from having righteousness that can save others, can- 
not, by his own merits, save himself. There is no 
name given under heaven, whereby we can be saved, 
but that of Jesus Christ. 

Of the doctrine that the bread and wine are to be 
worshipped, as the Papists hold, I may say some- 
thing hereafter. The withholding of the wine from 
the people, I now mention as the twenty-second of 
what we deem essential errors, and against which 
we protest. 

§ XXI17. Another practice of the Roman Church, 

held by IVotestanls in abomination, is that of carry- 
ing in procession, through the streets of large tow ns. 






46 

a piece of bread which they call the Host, and which 
do! only do they themselves worship, but oblige 
those whom they meet to how and oiler idolatrous 
adoration. They who are of the reformed religion 
will not, of course, submit to this, except in outward 
appearance : as Xaaman, perhaps, bowed in the 
house of Rimmon. But whether such a compliance, 
in violation of the second commandment, (of the 
letter, at least.) is not a sin. is worthy of serious con- 
sideration. The example of certain Jews, in refusing 
to "fall down and worship the image" which Neb- 
uchadnezzar had set UP) is much more worthy of 
imitation ; as is also that of thousands of holy 
martyrs, who have voluntarily suffered the most ex- 
cruciating torments, rather than (in outward appear- 
ance even) worship idols. The safest course is, an 
undeviating adherence to sound principle, leaving 
the event with God. Let us not forget who has 
said. " He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he 
that loseth his life for my sake, shall find it." In 
this country, where, through God's blessing, we en- 
joy religious freedom, we are not subjected to this 
particular trial ; and I may well here repeat what in 
the commencement of these remarks was said : He 
who would know what Popery is. must go where no 
other religion is tolerated. The inestimable blessing 
of religious liberty is evidently increasing in the 
world. The light of the Reformation continues to 
penetrate into the dark regions of idolatry and su- 
perstition. The pope has already lost very much of 
his power, which we trust in God he will never re- 
gain : and his adherents will find it more and still 
more difficult to blind the eyes of people, and pre- 
vent their searching for themselves what is the truth 
of God. We do not say that men will cease to be 
idolaters : the whole history of ages past teaches us 
to fear the contrary. " Men love darkness rather 
than light." " The natural man receiveth not the 
things of the Spirit of God." The external form of 



47 

religion will probably continue to be more pleasing 
to the unrenewed heart than " the inward part, or 
thing signified." How large a proportion of those 
"who profess and call themselves Christians" may 
continue to prefer the commandments of men to the 
word of God, He only knows. With regard to human 
authority, every one should be permitted to worship 
God according to the reasonable persuasion of his 
own mind. Censure even, cast upon men for using 
this liberty, is a degree of persecution. If any prefer 
to go out from vs, being- not (in heart) of us, let us 
not judge nor cease to pray for them. If they act 
conscientiously, God may receive and bless them. 
The prediction of the Bishop of Arath, that, in case 
we do not, as a Church, submit to the pope's su- 
premacy, some will break from our ranks, is already 
being verified ; and how many more will follow, 
need cause no painful anxiety. God will take care 
of his Church ; and if we who remain in it faithfully 
obey his word, he will daily add to our ranks " such 
as should be saved." They who carefully, with 
prayer, search for the old ways, (truly so called,) who 
desire to hold fast to what truly appertains to ancient 
Christianity, and to reject what is corrupt, erroneous, 
and superstitious, will, we believe, still find in the 
Protestant Episcopal Church a safe asylum. And 
good reason have we to hope that our ranks are 
much more likely to be increased than diminished. 

§XXIV. Another article of the Latin or Roman 
Church against which we protest is what is called 
the Sacrifice of the Mass, or the doctrine tliat, in the 
celebration of the Lore]'.- -upper, the priesl offers the 
real body and blood of Christ, literally understood, 
as a true and expiatory sacrifice for the living and 
(lend, equally meritorious with thai which Christ 
hiniscH" offered upon the cross; Bind thai this may be 
offered for any individual who is dead', it' he has left 
money to pay, or if any who are living will pay the 






48 

priest for doing it. Supposing this doctrine to be 
true, of what immense value must wealth be! A few 
dollars may save a soul ! The doctrine of our Church 
is, that God " gave his only Son, Jesus Christ, to 
sutler death upon the cross for our redemption, who 
made there, by his one oblation of himself, once 
offered, a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, obla- 
tion, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world, 
and did institute, and in his holy gospel command 
us to continue, a perpetual memory of that his pre- 
cious death and sacrifice." We do it as Christ 
commands, " in remembrance of him." There is, 
indeed, a general sense, in which any religious offer- 
ing may be called a sacrifice. Such, at the celebra- 
tion of the eucharist, are owr alms and oblations; 
such the gifts and creatures of bread and toine which 
we offer; and such "our sacrifice of praise and 
thanksgiving, . . . And we offer and present unto 
the Lord ourselves, our souls and bodies, to be a 
reasonable, holy, and living sacrifice unto him." But 
we do not consider these offerings as being in us 
meritorious, or as making any expiation for the sins 
of ourselves or others ; but, on the contrary, we ac- 
knowledge that we are unworthy to offer any sacri- 
fice, and pray God not to weigh our merits, but 
pardon our offences. 

The sacrifices under the law given by Moses, as 
the apostle to the Hebrews has clearly shown in 
chapter X., were shadows of good things to come ; 
they were typical of Christ : they looked to him as 
the substance, — as " the Lamb of God, who truly 
taketh away the sins of the world " — " who, after he 
had offered one sacrifice for sin, forever sat down on 
the right hand of God." By his stripes we are 
healed ; in him we have complete redemption. The 
Jewish passover was prophetical, directing the eye 
of faith forward to the death of Jesus Christ, in the 
fulness of time to be offered once for all; and in the 
Lord's supper we look back to the same all-sufficient 



49 

Sacrifice. It being full and complete, and offered for 
all, it needs not to be repeated ; and no act of man, 
whether priest or layman, can, by words spoken, or 
money given, add any thing to its efficacy, or render 
it more perfect, or more extensive, or more availing* 
" By one offering, he hath perfected forever them that 
are sanctified.' The pretence of thus repeating his 
death evidently implies that Christ's sacrifice was 
not full and complete. It implies that he should 
■* offer himself often " — that " he must often have 
suffered." * Protestants choose to rely on the sacri- 
fice which Christ himself made for their sins, rather 
than on this mercenary traffic of the priests. It 
seems that, according to their own views, in taking 
money for masses, they sell Christ to be crucified 
afresh. The traffic is certainly lucrative in a high 
degree : what Judas received was as nothing, in 
comparison. In saying this, I pretend not to judge 
of their sincerity or their devotion, nor whether or 
not they are accepted of God. It is worthy, how- 
ever, of repeated remark, that the most of their doc- 
trines and practices, which, in our view, are de- 
partures from the word of God, are wonderfully 
adapted, certainly, if not designed, to add power to 
their priests, and wealth to their church. How vast, 
beyond what human language can express, must be 
the power which can change a piece of bread into 
the eternal Son of God, and offer him, at pleasure, 
an expiatory sacrifice for any man or for all men ! 
And what reasonable man, if he can, indeed, bring 
himself to believe such doctrine, would not, at his 
death, gladly leave a part, or, if needed, all, of his 
estate, to rescue his own soul from future punish- 
ment? The Protestant, like the martyr St. Stephen, 
will, at his clying hour, look unto the w * Lord J( , sns " 
rather than to any pope or priest, to "receive" and 
save his soul. How, indeed, a mass offered for an 

* Heb. be. 25, 9a 



50 

individual, can be considered as the identical sacri- 
fice which Christ offered for all men, cannot, without 
light from Rome, be imagined. 

§ XXV. The doctrine that the Lord's supper is an 
Expiatory Sacrifice, making satisfaction for the sins 
of men, — the same as that which was offered by 
Christ himself, leads, of course, to another doctrine, 
equally erroneous, — that the man who administers 
the sacrament is a priest in the sense in which Christ 
himself is a Priest. This, too, we reject. In our 
Prayer-Book, and in the offices of our Church, the 
word priest is, indeed, often used, but not in that 
sense — not as designating one who offers a real 
sacrifice, making expiation for sin. With us, the 
word means the same as presbyter or elder ; it means 
a minister of Christ, ordained with power to com- 
memorate the sacrifice of Christ in that sacrament. 
He pretends not to repeat, but to " show forth, the 
Lord's death" — to do in remembrance of Christ 
what he commanded. 

The Pagans had priests many and sacrifices many, 
and idols and gods unnumbered ; but they were all 
abominations in the sight of the true God, the Lord 
Jehovah. Under the Mosaic Dispensation, there 
were, indeed, priests and sacrifices of truly divine 
appointment ; but, as above observed, they were 
typical ; they were prophetic symbols of the one 
only true Priest and true Sacrifice — of that " Lamb 
of God, who taketh away the sins of the world." 
The law, as St. Paul says, " was a schoolmaster to 
bring us to Christ ; " and it is desirable that Chris- 
tians should profit more than they generally do by 
its instruction. " It had a shadow of good things to 
come, but not the very image of the things." It 
could " never, with those sacrifices, which they 
offered year by year, continually, make the comers 
thereunto perfect. . . . For it is not possible that the 
blood of bulls and of goats should take away sin." 



51 

In the holy scriptures, the ministers of Christ are not 
called priests ; but he is himself so called. Aaron 
was a priest, as Moses was a mediator ; both typical 
of him whom God hath ordained to those high and 
holy offices. And they who are blest with a true 
knowledge of him need no other, and acknowledge 
no other priest or mediator. 

§ XXVI. One of the distinguishing peculiarities of 
the Christian religion is, that it has but one Priest, 
and needs no other. In religions of man's invention, 
they have priests taken from among men. The 
priests appointed according to the law given by 
Moses, as we have in the last section seen, were 
types prefiguring the Saviour, and designed, as were 
the other parts of that law, to prepare mankind, 
God's chosen people especially, for the advent of the 
Messiah, and for the gospel dispensation. Man can 
offer nothing that will take away the sins of others, 
nor can he redeem his own soul. We have one 
Priest, who is " the Lord from heaven," the eternal 
Word and Wisdom of God. This Word, being 
made flesh, and dwelling among us, offered himself 
to expiate our sins. And having made this " one 
sacrifice for sin," perfect and complete, there was no 
need of its being repeated. He then ascended into 
heaven, where he now sits at the right hand of God, 
as our Advocate with the Father, and the only pre- 
vailing Mediator between God and man. He is in 
himself sacrifice, and priest, and altar. And as we 
need no other propitiatory sacrifice, and no other 
priest to offer it, so of course we need no other altar } 
whereon to make atonemenl for the people. In this, 
also, we differ from the Romanists, who have what 
they call altars, at which their priests officiate, and 
on which they pretend to make an expiatory sacrifice. 
In the scriptures, the board on which the bread and 
wine, in administering the Lord's supper, are laid, is 

not calico! the alhn\ but the table: the same is true 



52 

of our Prayer-Book, properly so called, which ends 
with the Psalter, as may be seen by ' the table of 
contents ; " and also in the offices which follow 
the Psalter, for ordaining deacons, and priests, and 
bishops ; and for consecrating a church it is often 
called a table, but not an altar. In the office of in- 
stitution recently added to our Book of Common 
Prayer, the word altar is used, not certainly in the 
sense in which the Papists use it ; nor is it, I trust, 
from any change in the doctrines of our Church on 
this very material point, but rather in compliance 
with what seems to be becoming common language, 
without any regard to doctrinal propriety. We pre- 
tend not to offer on that board any expiatory sacri- 
fice ; we offer devoutly " our alms and oblations," 
and with great solemnity the " gifts and creatures of 
bread and wine, . . . according to Christ's institution, 
in remembrance of his death and passion." 

And here I have occasion to introduce a question 
(in my view) of much importance, respecting which 
I fear that there may be some difference of opinion 
among the clergy of our Church : it is, whether any 
doctrine of Christ, or religious propriety, requires 
that our ministers or people should worship with 
their faces towards the communion-table, rather than 
in any other direction, or whether the practice of so 
worshipping has not arisen from the doctrine of 
Transubstantiation, and does not countenance that 
doctrine? The Papists, we know, are consistent, 
however idolatrous, in doing it ; they have constant- 
ly before their eyes, and on the table, a cake of 
bread, which they avowedly worship as their God. 
But we have no such image or visible Deity on our 
communion-table ; nor can we give any good reason 
for supposing that God is there present more than 
in any other part of the church. Christ has, indeed, 
positively declared that he is in the midst of his people 
who meet to worship in his name ; but I would not 
infer from that gracious promise, though it is un- 



53 

doubtedly fulfilled, that the minister is bound to pray 
with his face to the congregation ; yet I do say that, 
if God is particularly present any where, it is among 
his people, rather than upon the table. In regard to 
this question, it is fitting that all things be done 
decently and to edifying. Decency may require 
that the people should face the minister, when he 
preaches, and perhaps when they pray, though this 
last may well be doubted. Both decency and con- 
venience render it fitting that, when the priest offi- 
ciates in administering the Lord's supper, his face 
should be towards the table, where his business is, 
except when he speaks to the people. In adminis- 
tering baptism, when he says, " Sanctify this ivater 
to the mystical washing away of sin," it is decent 
and fitting that he should turn his face toward the 
water, and even touch it with his fingers. And so 
in the Lord's supper, when he comes to the conse- 
cration of the elements, it is convenient and fitting 
that he should remove from the end of the table 
where he has performed the foregoing part of the 
communion-service, and " stand before the table," 
with his back to the people, that he may more con- 
veniently " order the bread and wine," and " with 
more readiness and decency break the bread before 
the people, and take the cup in his hands." In all 
this there is no unfitness, nor any thing like idolatry 
or superstition. 

Some have urged, in justification of their table 
worship, that the table is in the rubric called "the 
holy table." Is this a good reason for worshipping 
towards it? Can the Church, by a word, create an 
object of worship? It is a holy table in a scriptural 
sense of die word holy, and so are all other parts of 
the church; but things Sanctified audio be consid- 
ered as holy, are not, therefore, things to he wor- 
shipped, if they were so, the bodies of living Chris- 
tians would be the most suitable objects of adoration. 

We are repeatedly told from the highest authority, 



5-1 

that their bodies are holy, being the temple of the 
Holy Ghost dwelling within them. St. Paul says 
to the Corinthians, " Know ye not that ye are the 
temple of (Joel, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth 
in you ! the temple of God is hoty^ which temple ye 
are." * Here, again, is much better reason (if either 
of them be any reason) for the minister's worship- 
ping towards the people, than towards the table. 
Indeed, if in worship we turn towards any thing, 
because we deem it holy, it must, in the nature of 
things, be in some degree idolatrous. It implies 
that the God whom we worship is particularly in 
that place, and the turning- to it for that reason, be- 
cause of its holiness, is, of course, an act of adora- 
tion. The Bible is called holy, and more truly so 
called than any table. And ought we, then, to turn 
toward the Bible when we pray ? It has been ob- 
served of the Papists, that in their churches they 
appear to be very devout ; and has it not also been 
observed that w 7 hen they are so, their eyes are stead- 
fastly fixed upon some image or picture? The 
Pagans are still more devout in the presence of their 
idols. 

The time was when God did visibly manifest his 
presence in his temple at Jerusalem, and towards 
that temple were all his people commanded to wor- 
ship ; but now, under the Christian dispensation, 
" the hour," as Christ told the Samaritan woman, 
John iv., " is come when ive shall neither in that 
mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father, 
. . . when the true worshippers shall worship the 
Father in spirit and in truth." Whether the worship 
of which in this section I express my disapprobation, 
is worshipping the true God in spirit and in truth, I 
leave with the reader to judge. In what is the chief 
point will, I trust, a vast majority of our Church 
agree, that we have no sacrifice, priest, or altar, in 

* 1 Cor. iii. 16. 



55 

the sense claimed by the Church of Rome. I would 
suggest the propriety of adhering, in this and other 
things, to scriptural language, more than some Chris- 
tians do. They who prefer calling " the Lord's 
table " the altar, ought at least to understand what 
they mean. When our ministers, as some of them 
do, call upon those who are to be baptized or con- 
firmed, to " come forward to the altar" I would 
affectionately ask them whether the word chancel 
would not be more suitable ? 

§ XXVIL Another point of difference from the 
Church of Rome is the number of sacraments which 
Christ has ordained in his church. In our Church 
Catechism is a very excellent definition of " what we 
mean by this word sacrament;" that it is " an out- 
ward and visible sign of an inward spiritual grace 
given unto us, ordained by Christ himself, as a 
means whereby we receive the same, and a pledge 
to assure us thereof." Of these we acknowledge 
" two only as generally necessary to salvation ; that 
is to say, baptism and the supper of the Lord." By 
generally necessary to salvation, we mean those 
which, generally speaking, are required of all who 
would be saved in Christ ; that a sincere and faithful 
use of them would be beneficial to every Christian. 
The Romanists hold that the number is seven, in- 
cluding, besides Baptism and the Eucharist, Confir- 
mation, Penance, Extreme Unction, Holy Orders, 
and Matrimony. Their notion of a sacrament dif- 
fers, no doubt, from ours. Though they should hold 
that they are all ordained by Christ, and have out- 
ward signs of spiritual grace, they will riot say that 
they are all generally necessary to salvation. But 
few are required to receive holy orders, and abstain- 
ing from matrimonii they seem to view as a great 
virtue, and vastly meritorious, It is, by the way, 
somewhat singular that thej should view marriage 
as a holy sacrament^ and yet deem both men and 



56 

women less holy for their receiving it ! Vows made 
wholly to refuse this sacrament they extol exceeding- 
ly, and think it so meritorious as to justify the 
neglect of almost every duty towards their fellow- 
ini'ii. Of this their Monachisui and Convents afford 
abundant proof. 

If I mistake not, they view these seven ordinances 
as outward actions or sacred signs, ordained by 
Christ, and that they are sure means of bringing 
grace to our souls. After baptism and the Lord's 
supper, confirmation seems to come the nearest to 
our notion of a sacrament ; but Ave have no proof 
that it was ordained by Christ himself; we view it 
rather as having been instituted by his apostles, 
which is sufficient authority for its being received 
and practised as a divine institution. We differ, 
too, from the Romanists, in not dignifying it with 
the name sacrament, and in rejecting all unauthorized 
superstitious ceremonies in its administration ; we 
do it, as did the apostles, simply by prayer and 
laying on of hands. 

Their fourth sacrament is Penance, of which I 
may hereafter say something under the article Re- 
pentance. As this has no outward visible sign or- 
dained by Christy as a certain means of grace to our 
soidSj I cannot perceive with what fitness any Chris- 
tians should call it a sacrament. It is very profitable, 
however, to their church, in a pecuniary view, and 
adds much to the power of their priesthood. 

Their authority for their sacrament called Extreme 
Unction, is taken from what is recorded in the fifth 
chapter of the Epistle of St. James. " Is any sick 
among you? let him call for the elders of the church, 
and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil, 
in the name of the Lord ; and the prayer of faith 
shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up, 
and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven 
him." The power of working miracles was then 
still continued in the church; and this was a promise 



57 

that such prayer of faith, by the elder, should be 
blessed in the cure of the sick. Here, then, is 
nothing corresponding with what is now called the 
sacrament of Extreme Unction. Instead of being 
raised to life and health, the sick whom they thus 
visit, if I mistake not, in almost every instance, soon 
after die. Is not this a flagrant abuse of that passage 
of the scriptures ? And is it not very hazardous for 
any Christian now to rely on such a ceremony for 
the pardon of his sins ? 

Matrimony we believe to be a divine institution, 
ordained, not properly speaking by Jesus Christ, but 
by God at the creation of the first human pair. But 
what visible action or sign has it, assuring grace to 
the souls of married people? Matrimony is not 
" generally necessary to salvation ; " there is gener- 
ally neither merit nor sin in the single life. In God's 
sight " marriage is honorable among all men," 
whether clergy or laymen ; but none are, by the law 
of Christ, positively commanded to marry. 

§ XXVIII. The point on which I would next re- 
mark is one which presents us with a very humilia- 
ting view of human folly, and shows how blind is 
man without the light of the Sun of Righteousness. 
In reading the history of this world, nothing is more 
remarkable than the propensity of mankind to the 
ivorskip of images. This, from time immemorial, 
has been prevalent throughout the heathen world ; 
and the history of God's church, from the days of 
Moses to this present time, give mournful and 
abundant proof that his chosen people have, at 
various periods, been much inclined to this abomina- 
ble pollution. But a very short time after the 
Israelites had, by the mighty, outstretched arm of 
the laving God, been delivered from bondage in 

Egypt, and even while Moses was in the holy 

mount, receiving the tables o( the law, did they 
make a calf, in imitation of the Egyptian idolatry, 



58 

and worship the image, And what was their sub- 
sequent conduct, in imitating the idolatries of the 
nations around them, the sacred historians have 
informed us. Indeed, they who attentively read 
God's word must clearly See that one great purpose 
of divine revelation is and has ever been, to make 
known to his people and to all men the pernicious 
evil of such idolatry, and to promote the knowledge 
and worship of the one only and true God. 

It might reasonably have been supposed that the 
second commandment, which so clearly and fully 
forbids the worship of any images, and the making 
of them for that purpose, would effectually preserve 
all, whether Jews or Christians, who believe in God, 
and desire to render him acceptable homage, from 
this gross pollution. We are forbidden to make any 
image or imaginary likeness of the true God, as is 
fully shown in Deuteronomy iv. The Lord Jesus 
Christ, the living Saviour of men, who is one with 
the Father, is the only image or likeness of God 
whom he has authorized men to worship. God has 
revealed himself to us " in the face of Jesus Christ," 
in " whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead 
bodily." He, our divine Saviour, is appointed of 
God as the only Mediator, through whom we have 
access unto the Father. How evidently the Papists 
are guilty of this "pollution of idols" — of making 
images, and falling down and worshipping them, I 
leave to those who are acquainted with their worship 
to judge. It is scarce necessary to say that rejecting 
all worship of images is one essential article of the 
Reformation. Protestants hold such idolauy in utter 
abhorrence ; they regard the second commandment ; 
how many of us violate the first, by setting up idols 
in our hearts, God only knows. 

It was by degrees, partly in opposition to the 
Jews, and long after the apostles' days, that pictures 
and images began to be introduced into Christian 
churches. The pollution was then much opposed 



59 

by Churches, and Councils, and the Emperors, 
though they were not at first introduced to be objects 
of religious adoration. But, after being introduced, 
■ — as any one acquainted with human nature might 
expect, — - the worship of them gradually came into 
use, chiefly through the influence of popes. It is a 
remarkable and a mournful fact, that this and almost 
every other corruption of religion have been intro- 
duced by the priesthood. The laity, generally speak- 
ing, are more ready to hear than the clergy to preach 
the pure doctrines of the cross of Christ. 

In justification of bowing to images, it is often 
said that the homage is not offered to the image, but 
to the being which it represents. Of the true God, 
as I said, we are forbidden to make any material 
image or likeness ; his image, since the ascension of 
Christ, is to be formed in our hearts only, according' 
to the pattern revealed to us from above. And if the 
image is of any other being than the true God, 
whether the homage be offered to the image or to 
the saint, is immaterial ; for both are, so far as I can 
see, equally idolatrous. The heathen said, and no 
doubt truly, that they did not worship their images, 
but the beings whom their images represented ; and 
what well-informed Christian would more willingly 
worship the false god than its image ? Why the 
Papists have been at so much pains to conceal from 
the people the knowledge of the scriptures, and of 
the second commandment in particular, is very ob- 
vious. In instances not a few, when a new image 
has been set up, to honor the saint or idol, and bring 
the shrine into repute, indulgences have been granted 
by the pope to all who would devoutly visit it. So 
highly do they estimate this species of idolatry, that 
worshipping an image, which is one of the greatest 
sins, they consider so meritorious as to atone for 
other sins. 

It is remarkable, and not, I trust, improper here to 
notice, that about the time of the establishment of 



60 

the Papacy, in the early part of the seventh cert* 
tury, the Mahometan imposture also commenced. 
These, by some writers, are denominated the two 
grand apostacies from the Christian faith, the one 
overrunning the Eastern, and the other the Western 
Church. The latter, the Romanists, are advocates 
for image worship ; the former abhor and oppose it. 
These great evils, we may believe, were permitted 
in just punishment of Christians, for their departure 
from the pure simplicity of the gospel ; for their dis- 
sensions, strifes, and worldly affections. And ought 
we not in this to see and to admire, not only the 
justice, but the wisdom of an overruling Providence 
in balancing errors, and counteracting one great evil 
by another ? The Mahometans, as also the Jews, 
being, as they are, dispersed through a great part 
of the world, must have a salutary effect in oppo- 
sing the blind folly of image worship, and in en- 
lightening mankind in that fundamental article of all 
true religion, — that there is but one God, and he 
the only just object of religious adoration. And 
when other nations of the earth shall be converted to 
the faith of Christ, those strenuous opposers of 
image worship will, we may believe, have no small 
influence in preserving the Church from idolatrous 
corruptions. 

§ XXIX. Another species or form of idolatry, and 
similar to that last mentioned, is the practice of pray- 
ing to angels, and also to dead men and women, 
which is well known to have been the general usage 
of the Latin or Western Church, at the time of the 
Reformation, and by the Papists is continued and 
justified at the present day. Whether this worship 
be called prayer or invocation is immaterial. A large 
part of our prayers to the true God are also invoca- 
tions. It would be easy to direct the reader to many 
of these invocations which are published and much 
used, and which are direct prayers for grace and aid. 



61 

Mary, the mother of Jesus, whom they call "the 
mother of God," and " the queen of heaven," with 
many other appellations shocking to the ear of Pro- 
testants, they worship, so far as we can judge, more 
than any other deity ; and have more pictures made 
and images erected to her honor, than to any other 
god or goddess. 

God has made his angels ministering spirits, and. 
as we have reason to believe, they watch over his 
people for their good ; and often have they been sent 
to this earth as messengers of peace and love. To 
them, if to any created beings, it would seem that 
we might call for heavenly aid. But we read in the 
nineteenth and twenty-second chapters of Revela- 
tion, that this is expressly and repeatedly forbidden ; 
we are still, to the end of the holy scriptures, com- 
manded to " worship God," and no other being. 

What is particularly the state of the soul after 
death till the resurrection and the day of judgment, 
has not been revealed to us, because, no doubt, it is 
not necessary for the regulation of our conduct in 
this world, and for preparing us for our eternal state. 
" Secret things belong unto the Lord our God, but 
those things which are revealed belong unto us ; " 
and happy would it be, if with them Christians were 
more contented, and were less disposed to pry into 
those times and seasons, and other things "which 
the Father hath put in his own power." The world 
is very little wiser for all the volumes that have been 
written on the subject of the intermediate state, ami 
for any and for all the attempts of men to be wise in 
religious knowledge above or beyond what is M writ- 
ten for our learning" in the word of God. Our 

Saviour's words to the penitent thief on the cross, 
and his parable of the rich man and Lazarus, mviu 

to give us the clearest and almost all the knowledge 
we have of the presenl state <>( ^)\[\* departed from 
this life. Two places of departed spirits our Lord 
mentions; one with himself in paradise, the other a 






B2 

place of torment. This latter could not be a popish 
purgatory ; for Christ expressly states that there is no 
possibility of passing from either one to the other. 
But, in my judgment, it may be doubted whether 
these or any other passages in the BibLe, were in- 
tended to give us any distinct knowledge of what 
will be our state between death and our final judg- 
ment. And it is, indeed, doubtful, whether we have 
any language which can convey to our understand- 
ing a clear knowledge of the spiritual world. By 
what language can we give to one who was born 
blind, a knowledge of light and of colors ? 

But it is enough for my present purpose to say 
that we have no knowledge of the present state and 
capacities of souls departed ; and whether or not 
they can hear our prayer, or do any thing for our 
benefit, we are ignorant. And we know of a cer- 
tainty, that we have no manner of need of their 
mediation. God, in his unspeakable mercy, has 
appointed and has graciously accepted one Mediator, 
who is ever more willing to hear, and infinitely more 
able to help us, than all the saints and angels in the 
universe. To Him, as did the holy martyr Stephen, 
will the well-informed Christian look for grace and 
salvation. God has also given his Holy Spirit to 
dwell within us, to sanctify our affections, and to 
help us to do and to be what God's word requires. 
He, who is " the Spirit of the Father," and " the 
Spirit of Christ," is more powerful than all that is in 
the world, and is ready to help you in every case 
and every time of need. 

I need not repeat what has been so often and truly 
shown, that praying to a saint supposes him or her 
to be possessed of divine attributes ; of omnipres- 
ence ; of being able to read the hearts and know the 
thoughts and desires of all men and in all places. 
Is not this idolatrous? The deities that the heathen 
worshipped had lived on the earth ; some of them, 
no doubt, had been men or women, who had lived 



63 

well, and had been benefactors to mankind. Why 
was it more idolatrous to worship them, than to offer 
like homage to those whom the pope is pleased to 
call saints ? To worship Minerva than St. Wine- 
f ride ? Hercules than St. Patrick ? 

And who has given the pope authority to decide 
who are blessed as saints in heaven, or who are 
beings to whom the adorations of men may be 
addressed ? It is not, indeed, strange, or very incon- 
sistent, that they who believe that a priest, by speak- 
ing three or four words, can change a piece of bread 
into the eternal God, should also believe that their 
great high-priest, whom some of their writers de- 
nominate " our Lord God the Pope," has power to 
decide what man or woman deceased, may be in- 
voked in religious adoration. 

And are we sure that saints, whoever may be truly 
such, are more concerned for our good than those 
who are not so blessed? It is remarkable that in 
the parable of our Saviour above referred to, it is 
not Abraham or Lazarus who expresses concern for 
the living, and requests that means may be used to 
prevent the loss of their souls, but he who was " in 
torment ; " and the request was denied, not on the 
ground of his being unqualified to make it, but be- 
cause the living have the scriptures, containing the 
revealed will of God. 

§ XXX. The greatest evils that have befallen the 
church of God, next after the departure of its mem- 
bers from the standard of his word, are its divisions ; 
and the daily prayer of "all who profess and call 
themselves Christians," should be that they u may be 
led into the way of truth, and hold the faith in unity 
of spirit, and in the bond of peace," as well as "in 
righteousness of life." Such unity of spirit can 

never be effected but by the Spirit of God, enlight- 
ening the minds and ruling the hearts o( men. 
M To bring into the way of truth all such as have 



64 

erred and are deceived," requires the mighty power 
of the Holy Ghost, for which we should " pray with- 
out ceasing." 

But other means arc to be used. Christians will 
not be united till they know and clearly understand 
wherein and why they differ. With this knowledge, 
each one may inquire and examine for himself, and 
if he does it in an honest and good heart, and with 
humble, fervent prayer, he will u be ready always to 
give an answer to every man that asketh a reason of 
the hope that is in him ; " and also to do it " with 
meekness and fear," which is very essential, that he 
may do it to good effect. My chief purpose, as I 
have repeatedly stated, and wish it to be constantly 
kept in mind, is to give our own people a knowledge 
of the points or articles wherein we differ from the 
Church of Rome ; a knowledge which our people 
seem much to need, especially at the present time. 
In giving reasons ivhy we thus differ, I aim at little 
more than a brief statement of the points wherein 
that difference consists. If in any of the articles I 
have misrepresented the tenets of the Romish Church, 
no one would regret it more than myself. I wish 
not to diminish their usefulness; — I would gladly 
unite with them, and all Christians, so far as it may 
be without departing from the truth of God, as taught 
in his word. If I truly state wherein we differ, the 
subject may be as useful to them as to ourselves ; it 
points out to them what their church stigmatizes as 
our heresies ; and gives them occasion and opportu- 
nity to examine and judge for themselves ; happy 
would it be were they, by their priests, permitted 
thus to examine and to judge. And should any of 
our brethren of other Protestant denominations deign 
to look at these remarks, it is hoped that they will 
be less inclined, than in times past, to accuse us 
of Popery; — many of them certainly may see that 
while we differ from themselves but in three or 
four points at most, which we deem essential, we 



65 

differ from the Romanists in more than ten times 
as many. 

Twenty-nine of these points I have already men- 
tioned, the last of which was the offering of prayers 
to the dead. The one to which I now ask your 
attention, is praying for the dead. Among all the 
errors against which we protest, there is no one 
which seems more accordant with our natural feel- 
ings than this ; it seems to flow from a pure and 
charitable spirit. But we are commanded to wor- 
ship not only in spirit but in truth; we are to 
" pray with the spirit and with the understanding 
also." And what do we understand in our pray- 
ing for dead men and for dead women ? What 
authority have we for believing that such prayers 
will be of use to the dead or to the living? 
What do they imply? and to what does the 
practice lead? We have no divine authority for 
such a practice ; nor do we know what is the present 
state of those who have departed this life. The 
Bible is silent upon the subject, which it would not 
be were it a practice which could be of good effect. 
The gospel of Christ is a revealed religion, and 
wholly of divine authority. What may be our 
natural feelings, or desires, or wisdom, is of little 
amount and of no authority ; if indeed we were to 
follow our own imaginations it would lead to con- 
fusion and every evil work. 

And what, I repeat, does this practice imply ? If 
we pray in faith and with any meaning, it implies 
the presumptuous and unauthorized belief, thai God 
will hear, to their benefit, our prayers for the dead. 
And it leads to a belief in the doctrine of Purgatory, 
one of the worst of the corruptions which have crept 

into the Church. This is undoubtedly its practical 
effect. It leads also to other superstitious practices. 

It encourages men to delay repentance and continue 

in their sins in the expectation that others will pray 

and oiler masses for them after their death. And 

6* 



66 

also to trust in their money to save them ; for when 
they have no longer use for it in this world, they can 
leave it to purchase of their priests such masses and 
prayers. This increases very much the power and 
the wealth of the priests, and must be with them a 
very prevailing argument for the continuance of the 
practice. This practice also derogates from the 
glory of Christ, the only Mediator whom God has 
accepted. The doctrine that there is to be another 
state of probation after this life is of immense con- 
sequence, and cannot reasonably be received without 
divine authority, clear and express. To receive it 
on human authority would be a perilous presump- 
tion. Though praying for the dead was introduced 
into the church at an early day, probably in the third 
century, and although some individuals of the Re- 
formed Churches have favored it, by our Church, 
and by Protestants generally, it is discarded as a 
practice wholly unauthorized and of very evil ten- 
dency. 

§ XXXL It will suffice briefly to mention as 
another article of our Reformation, the practice of 
the Roman Church of using in their mass and public 
prayers, the Latin language, which is to almost all 
who pretend to unite in it, an unknown tongue. 
With those who will continue and defend such a 
practice, it can be of little use to reason. We are 
bound to render a reasonable service, and how can 
it be such to those who do not understand what is 
offered in their name, and as their prayer to God ? 
In the apostles' days there were individuals who. in 
their prayer-meetings, seem to have been vain of dis- 
playing their gifts of tongues by praying and giving 
thanks in such foreign languages as were unknown 
to many, probably to most of the people present, who, 
of course, could jiot with propriety say "Amen," 
in response to the prayer. What St. Paul has 
written upon this subject in his first Epistle to the 



67 

Corinthians, and fourteenth chapter, may justly be 
applied to this present article, and must, we might 
expect, be decisive with those who revere the pre- 
cepts of an inspired apostle. They who will persist 
in worshipping " in an unknown tongue," may 
" pray with the spirit" but certainly do not " pray 
with the understanding also," 

§ XXXII. The next article which I would men- 
tion, is what is called Auricular Confession ; the 
Roman Church makes it imperative on all her mem- 
bers to confess their sins to a priest; a practice 
which, like most of their other distinctive principles, 
adds very much to the power and wealth of their 
priesthood. It is not only fitting, but the duty of 
Christians to confess their sins one to another, es- 
pecially to those whom they have injured, that they 
may make restitution, and obtain forgiveness ; and 
also to confess such faults and offences as others 
have a right to know. By making known our feel- 
ings to our Christian brethren, we may hope to 
obtain better knowledge of our religious state, and 
of our duty as Christians. But there are many 
secrets, which, though they may be connected with 
what in God's sight is sinful, had better not be 
known to man. And that laymen are bound to 
confess to priests, any more than priests to laymen, 
no good reason, nor divine authority can be given. 
The confession should be voluntary, without human 
constraint, and its object be, as above said, to make 
restitution, or to obtain counsel, or to increase our 
sorrow for having done amiss. The practical effect 
of the Roman auricular confession is on the part of 
the priests, gaining the secrets and the wealth o( the 
people, and on the part of the people the notion 
most evidently and very generally is entertained, that 
if they advance the money required, do penance, re* 
pealing perhaps a few ave-Marias, or visiting the 
shrine of some saint, and obtain absolution from one 



6S 

of their priests, their sins are forgiven, and they feel 
wholly at ease respecting what is past. Though the 
priest may say, with all sincerity and truth, that the 
absolution is given on condition of their repentance, 
the practical effect is too evidently as I have stated ; 
there is, in practice, and very naturally, an undue 
and perilous reliance on the formality. What im- 
mense power and influence must be added to the 
priests by knowing the most important secrets of 
every family and individual, may easily be conceived. 
That men should be willing that such questions 
should be put to their wives, and sisters, and young 
daughters in the confessional, as are found even in 
the published rules of that church, have seemed to 
me strange and astonishing. One who had been 
educated among the Papists says, " I learned (in the 
confessional) more sins than ever I had heard of 
when conversant in the world." What effect many 
of the questions which are known to be put to 
females must have on the priests themselves, may 
easily be imagined. Of what is done in private, 
and in convents especially, where all is secret as the 
grave, will not be known till that day when all 
the works of darkness shall be brought to light. 
That the people of this our free country, should have 
such awakened suspicions and fears of the private 
meetings of the people called freemasons, who are 
men only, and they respectable members of society, 
mingling with the community in all the affairs of 
life, and yet manifest such apathy respecting the 
secrets of the confessional, and of men and women 
wholly retired from the view of the world, has long 
to me seemed unaccountable. 

§ XXXIII. Another point in which we cannot 
agree'With the Papists is their substituting penance 
for scriptural repentance, and directing sinners to a 
priest rather than to God, that they may obtain re- 
mission and forgiveness. This is admirably adapted 



69 

to what is evidently the great and overruling object 
of Popery, properly so called, which is to exalt the 
priesthood, enrich the church, and subjugate the 
world. In this it may be truly said that it is uniform- 
ly consistent, and never changes. To Protestants, 
that church appears certainly not duly to regard the 
repentance, which the scriptures require as necessary 
to our pardon and acceptance, that inward grace, or 
state of the mind which is " repentance towards 
God." According to the tenets and practice of that 
church, it seems, certainly, that forgiveness of sin is 
to be obtained by outward acts, and the absolution 
of a priest, rather than by contrition, by godly sorrow, 
abhorrence of sin, renovation of heart and conversion 
to God, through faith in Jesus Christ. To sustain 
this, their doctrine, the word " repent," as used in 
the scriptures, is rendered, in their translation, do 
penance. This is done by paying money, abstaining 
from some article of food, visiting some image, say- 
ing a number of ave-Marias, or by some other pre- 
scribed performance. One grand feature of the Pa- 
pal system is its substituting forms and ceremonies, 
and the commandments of men for inward grace and 
the religion of the heart. Their sacrament called 
penance is not " ordained of Christ himself," but or- 
dained by a frail, erring, and sinful man ; and the 
promise of its " inward spiritual grace " is not of 
divine authority. The substituting outward forms 
for inward grace, for the religion of the heart, is re- 
markably adapted to the propensities of our fallen 
nature, and is of itself sufficient to recommend that 
religion to a great part of mankind. (1 Cor, ii. 1 I.) 
Till their heart is renewed by a living faith in Christ, 
any religion will be more acceptable to men than 
the submission of their mind and will " to the holy 
commandment delivered unto them" in the word o( 
God. 

What a door their sacramenl of penance, connect- 
ed with their practice of auricular confession, opens 



n 

to immorality ; what a temptation to impurity, es- 
pecially where every thing is profoundly secret, and 
tbe confessor prescribes the penance, may easily 
be imagined! I would not willingly say a word 
to darken the character of any Christians. Very 
few of us are so free from sin, as to be qualified to 
cast the stone at others. But to show what will 
naturally be the evil tendency of any tenets or prac- 
tices, is no departure from Christian charity. If any 
one desires to see a brief statement of some of the 
proofs of the actual effects of penance and other 
Papal tenets on tbe morals, may consult the appen- 
dix to the second volume of a work called the Pro- 
testant, Essay III. Our Saviour has taught us to 
pray, " Lead us not into temptation" But we do 
not sincerely and truly thus pray, except we care- 
fully avoid temptation. 

So far as penance may be truly called religious 
abstinence ; so far as by suffering ourselves we re- 
lieve others from suffering; or when, by denying 
ourselves lawful pleasures, or other good things of 
this life, we make either ourselves better, or others 
more happy, it is, we may believe, a sacrifice ac- 
ceptable to God ; but the notion that mere voluntary 
suffering or pain, or afflicting our soul for a season, 
is meritorious, or that it will atone for sins past or 
future, is a perilous delusion. The Lord will ask 
us by his prophet Isaiah, " Who hath required this 
at your hand?" The heathen and idolaters, those, 
especially, of Hindostan, excel all Christians in this 
imaginary merit and delusive sell-righteousness. If 
we expect pardon of sin and eternal life for the 
merits of any sufferings, but those of our Saviour, 
Christ, we deceive ourselves, and " are fallen from 
grace." 

§ XXXIV. We differ, also, from the Romanists 
respecting the canon of scripture. They receive as 
inspired of God those ancient writings usually called 



71 

the Apocrypha. Why they receive them, is suffi- 
ciently obvious ; they contain some passages which 
seem to give countenance to the corrupt tenets and 
practices of their church, Protestants reject them 
for the very good reason that there is no evidence of 
their having be-en written by inspired penmen ; there 
is no good authority for receiving them as the re- 
vealed word of God. They are not found in the 
ancient Hebrew Bible. They were not received by 
Christians till the fifth century, wiien the church had 
become, in many things, corrupt. They contain 
things which are at variance with the true scriptures, 
and things, also, which are absurd and unworthy of 
belief. But they are valuable as writings of consid- 
erable antiquity, and in some of them are found 
interesting historical matter; in others, noble senti- 
ments and rules of moral life, for which reasons " the 
Church reads them, (or parts of them,) for example 
of life, and instruction of manner, but does not apply 
them to establish any doctrine." 

§ XXXV. Another error, which appears to us 
great, and which we reject, is the multiplying inter- 
cessors, to the dishonor of him who is truly our 
" advocate with the Father." God in his merciful 
goodness has been graciously pleased to appoint his 
only begotten Son to be a Mediator between him- 
self and us, his erring, sinful creatures, and has 
declared himself well-pleased with his Son's media- 
tion. This Lord from heaven came to this earth, 
and took our nature. By his whole life and suffer- 
ings on our behalf he manifested that he is a coin- 
passionate High-Priest, touched with the feelings of 
our infirmities, and that, through him, we have ac- 
cess to the Father. And God has appointed no 
other advocate, and he does not promise to hear U8 
for the merits and intercession of any other being, 

nor tO accept ns bul in him the beloved. Is it not 
very foolish in men to rely upon, or to wish tor any 



72 

other intercessor than him whom God has chosen 
and appointed to that momentous office ? Is it not, 
besides being very idolatrous, a dishonor to Christ 
to beseech any dead man or dead woman to inter- 
cede for us ut thr throne of grace ? Is any one more 
ready to hear us, or more able to help us, or more 
loved of the Father, than our Lord Jesus Christ? 
iVter, and Paul, and Mary, were sinners like our- 
selves, and are not themselves saved but through the 
merits of Christ's sacrifice for their sin. Some seem 
to rely on the strange (may we not say blasphemous) 
doctrine that Mary, being the mother of Jesus, and 
" the mother of God," may control her son, and, by 
her maternal influence, constrain him to do what, 
without her interference, he would neglect! There 
may be occasion, hereafter, to speak more particu- 
larly on this point. It will suffice now to remark, 
what is indeed very remarkable, that whilst our Lord 
was on the earth, when he "made himself of no 
reputation," and was " in the form of a servant," he 
reproved her for interfering with what appertained to 
his conduct, or ministry. (John ii. 4.) After Mary 
had performed the momentous office for which she 
was selected from the daughters of Eve, that of 
bringing the Saviour into the world, and doing for 
him what the law required, it is very remarkable 
that so very little is said of her, and that little so said 
as to make it evident to all who read the scriptures, 
that after Jesus commenced his public ministry, she 
was no more venerated by him and his disciples 
than other pious women ; than the sisters of Lazarus, 
for instance, whom " Jesus loved." While a child, 
he was subject to Joseph and Mary, his reputed 
parents, by which he gave a good example to all 
children. And yet, when he was but twelve years 
old, he began to remind them that he had an office 
to perform wholly independent of their parental 
authority. When his mother said to him, " Son, 
why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold thy father 



73 

and I have sought thee sorrowing," his answer more 
than intimated that he had a great work before him, 
in which no other people, not his mother, even, were 
authorized to interfere : " How is it that ye sought 
me ? wist ye not that I must, be about my Father's 
business ? They understood not the saying which 
he spake unto them." And it seems strange that, 
after the revelation which had been made to his 
mother especially, she should not understand his 
meaning. And yet our Saviour was not regardless 
of the fifth commandment. He had all the affection 
for his mother, which, as man, he ought to have. He 
made provision for her comfortable maintenance 
while she lived ; he commended the care of her to 
his beloved disciple John, who, after Jesus' death, 
" took her unto his own home." But, as Christ, his 
relatives, and the objects of his particular regard, are 
his faithful disciples. Thus, when it was told him, 
" Thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desir- 
ing to see thee," — he answered and said unto them, 
" My mother and my brethren are those which hear 
the word of God and do it." Much reason have we 
to adore the wisdom of that divine Providence which 
has so ordered these things, that there is not even 
the shadow of authority for that idolatrous veneration 
which, to the disgrace of Christianity, is offered to the 
mother of Jesus. 

§ XXXVI. I have endeavored that the remarks 
under each section should be no more than are 
necessary for a concise view of the difference be- 
tween Papists and Protestants, and of the need of 
reformation. And the reader should nol forget that 
what renders the subject tedious, — the great number 

of the articles, shows its importance, and is a i:ood 
reason, not only lor their being published, but also 
for their being carefully read and well understood. 

Whether we have rejected any part of the truth ot 

God, a» it is revealed in Jesus Christ, each one for 

7 



74 

himself may judge. As Archbishop Laud says, 
" Protestants did not get that name by protesting 
against the Church of Rome, but by protesting (and 
that where nothing rise would serve) against her 
errors and superstitions." It is no departure from 
the church, to reject the things in which the church 
has erred, and that which is at variance with the 
word of God. 

Episcopalians should be aware that they occupy 
a middle ground in the great religious controversies 
of the present day. Though unhappily there are 
jarring dissensions among Protestants, and differen- 
ces of belief, and though some of several denomina- 
tions have recently, and with much acrimony, assail- 
ed the Protestant Episcopal Church, not " knowing 
(what is so evident) that we are set for the defence 
of the gospel " and of the Protestant cause, this need 
give us no great anxiety ; w r e may well believe that 
the great majority of Christians will continue to be, 
as they ever have been, Episcopalians. The great 
contest in " the good fight of faith," is to be, on the 
one hand, with those who have added to God's 
word apocryphal scriptures, false doctrine, and cor- 
rupt tradition ; and on the other hand, with them 
who have taken from it what is essential to Chris- 
tianity, " making the cross of Christ of no effect," 
and leading those who profess and call themselves 
Christians, a downward course to unbelief and laxity 
of morals. True, Catholicism is in most danger of 
being, on the one side, corrupted by Jesuitical arti- 
fice and idolatrous superstition, and, on the other, of 
being " spoiled through philosophy and a vain deceit, 
.... after the rudiments of the world, and not after 
Christ." Being warned from heaven to " beware" 
let us continue in the straight and narrow way, and 
" turn not to the right hand or to the left." The 
differing denominations of those who are called 
orthodox Christians agree in holding and teaching 
the most essential principles of the gospel, and may 



75 

be considered by us as laboring, more or less direct- 
ly, in behalf of the true catholic church, and well 
may we rejoice, and determine, with St. Paul, that 
we will rejoice that by them " Christ is preached." 

What I next mention, is the difference between 
Papists and Protestants respecting the power of 
priests to forgive sin. In addition to my former re- 
marks on their views of repentance, of their sacra- 
ment of penance, and of their sale of indulgence, it 
is sufficient for my present purpose to say, what is 
but too evident, that, as matter of fact, the great 
majority of Papists, after confessing to a priest, and 
receiving absolution, feel no compunction for their 
sins, nor do they generally appear to have that " re- 
pentance towards God," which God himself requires 
as necessary to their forgiveness and to their being 
" accepted in the Beloved." So far as we may rea- 
sonably judge, they trust in the absolution as a 
complete exculpation. And under the sanction of 
an indulgence, they appear certainly to look forward 
to sins in future without any remorse of conscience 
or fear of punishment. Let those who doubt of this, 
be at the pains to observe how it is practised among 
them. Protestants send the sinner, not to a priest, 
but to God, for perfect remission and forgiveness ; 
exhort him to rend his heart, and not his garments, 
and to turn unto the Lord his God, who alone can 
forgive sin. The ministers of Christ, in our view of 
this momentous point, have power and command- 
ment from God, " to declare and pronounce to his 
people, being penitent, the absolution and remission 
of their sins." God "pardoneth and absolveth all 
those, who truly repent and unfeignedly believe his 
holy gospel." Without thai scriptural " repentance 

which is nol to he repented of," giving money, or 

killing a. heretic, or visiting any image, or saying a 
thousand ave-Marias will avail as nothing. They, 

of the Papists, who have, lor instance, hern engaged 
in the service of their church, to assassinate kinu , 01 



76 

to blow up a house of parliament by gunpowder, or 
to invade the territory of a people whom the pope 
baa excommunicated, far from feeling compunction 
for such atrocious sins, have thought the deeds vastly 
meritorious, and have expected a high seat in heaven 
as their reward. In >\\c\i cases, they have confessed 
to a priest, and been absolved, before the horrid 
crimes have been perpetrated. Such has been prac- 
tically the view of Romanists of the efficacy and 
effect of absolutions pronounced by their priests. 

§ XXXVIL Monachism, or monkery, we view as 
a great evil ; as a priestly order of human invention, 
and not properly appertaining to the Christian min- 
istry. It is not now what it was in its original in- 
stitution. The first monks, so called, were those 
who were driven by persecution into retired and 
solitary places, living awhile alone in cells, and, soon 
after, forming themselves into societies. " They 
hoped to find that peace among the beasts which 
was denied them among men." "Whether such 
retirement, to avoid persecution, was consistent with 
their duty as Christians, may well be questioned. 
Our Lord told his disciples, when " persecuted in 
one city to flee to another," where they might be 
received, and their labors be blest. But he did not 
direct them to retire from the society of men, and 
spend their unprofitable lives in idleness and ease. 
But whatever may be said of the earliest monks, in 
the third and fourth centuries, they afterwards be- 
came very corrupt. " The Reformation had a man- 
ifest influence in restraining their excesses, and ren- 
dering them more circumspect and cautious in their 
external conduct." By hundreds of writers this is 
confirmed. Mosheim observes, that as early as the 
fifth century their licentiousness was become a prov- 
erb. In the seventh century, their vices had much 
increased. About this time they devoted themselves 
wholly to advance the interests and maintain the 



77 

dignity of the bishops of Rome, who exempted them 
from the jurisdiction of all other bishops, so that they 
are not improperly denominated "the pope's militia." 
At the time of the commencement of the Reforma- 
tion, says the author last named, (Cent. xvi. sect. 1,) 
" The prodigious swarms of monks that overspread 
Europe were universally considered as cumberers of 
the ground, and occasioned murmurs and complaints 
every where. And, nevertheless, such was the 
genius of the age, . . . that these monastic drones 
would have remained undisturbed had they taken 
the least pains to preserve any remains, even, of the 
external air of decency and religion that used to dis- 
tinguish them in former times. But the Benedictine 
and the other monkish fraternities, . . . forgetful of 
the gravity of their character, and of the laws of their 
order, rushed headlong into the shameless practice 
of vice in all its various kinds and degrees." " The 
monastic orders and religious societies have been 
considered by the Roman pontiffs as the principal 
support of their authority and dominion. It is 
chiefly by them that they rule the church, maintain 
their influence on the minds of the people, and 
augment the number of their votaries." These are 
not properly ministers of Christ, but of the pope, and 
wholly devoted to his service. Monastic institutions 
have been significantly denominated " the plague- 
spots of Europe." Several of the civil powers of 
Europe have become so far emancipated from papal 
despotism, that some of them have removed, and 
others are now removing, these plague-spots from 
their dominions. That such pestiferous institutions 
may never be transplanted to this our country, pious 
Christians should daily pray. 

§ XXXVIII. The unscriptural exaltation of celt, 
bacy, or ascribing merit and peculiar sanctity to the 

unmarried stale is an error of pernicious tendency, 
against which we protest. This was anions the 

7* 



78 

eariiest corruptions of true religion. The notion of 
any peculiar holiness appertaining to the single state, 
is wholly imaginary, without foundation in nature or 
religion. " It is easy," as one writer says, " to per- 
ceive the process by which infirm minds passed into 
the error of attributing sanctity to celibacy. The 
law of Christian purity knows of no such confusion 
of ideas. The very same authority which forbids 
adultery enjoins marriage." And yet so very much 
is this divine law by the Romanists perverted, that 
none, it is believed, will accuse me of departing 
from truth or charity, in saying that with them it 
was, and I fear still is, easier for their priests to 
obtain absolution for adultery than for marriage. 
The consequence of vows of living in single life, 
has been generally such as might most reasonably be 
expected ; they have tended much more to the dimi- 
nution, than to the promotion of chastity. I have 
formerly noticed the inconsistency of considering 
marriage a pollution, and yet a holy sacrament. 
This imaginary sanctity is a perversion of the pure 
doctrine of God's word, and has caused other cor- 
ruptions of religion, and much impurity and vice. 
The incontinence of their priests, from popes down 
to friars, is matter of history, open to those who 
choose to read it ; but much rather would I conceal 
than spread the knowledge of such abomination. 
So long as morality is understood to consist in 
obedience to the declared will of God, it can never 
be imagined that a man is defiled by living in matri- 
mony, any more than by eating with unwashen hands. 
Such artificial holiness, or refinement upon natural 
instinct, is subversive of pure and undefined religion. 

§ XXXIX. An idolatrous regard to relics, Protest- 
ants justly reckon among the corruptions of the 
Catholic religion. To what extent and ridiculous 
extremes this is carried, is well known to those who 
have given attention to the subject- This idolatrous 



79 

corruption began as early as the fourth century to 
disgrace the church. The relics of saints were 
esteemed as " mighty ramparts, which are capable 
of protecting towns from the military assaults of 
their enemies ; as champions by which all disasters 
are turned away from us ; as strong rocks which dis- 
sipate and nullify the snares of unseen demons, and 
all the craftiness of Satan ; as possessing such aston- 
ishing virtues, that the very touch even of the shrine 
which contains them will bring down a blessing, and 
that the touch of the relics themselves will accom- 
plish all the desires of those who are admitted to so 
great a favor." * That, the Romanists avowedly 
worship what they pretend to be the wood of the 
cross on which Christ suffered, abundance of authori- 
ties and proofs may be given. 

The holy scriptures are so far from giving any 
sanction to this idolatrous practice, that throughout 
their sacred pages they bear testimony against it. 
In the thirty-fourth chapter of Deuteronomy , we read 
that " Moses, the servant of the Lord, died in the 
land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord ; 
and he [the Lord] buried him in a valley in the land 
of Moab, over against Beth-peor ; but no man knowcth 
of his sepulchre unto this day." This concealment 
of Moses' sepulchre, was by divine wisdom un- 
doubtedly ordered for some important purpose. And 
this purpose is shown to be the more important, and 
our desire of knowing it is much increased, by a 
remarkable passage in the Epistle of St. .hide, where 
it is said that " Michael the Archangel, contending 
with the devil, disputed about the body o( Moses." 
It is, I think, sufficiently evidenl to every reader, thai 
the body of Moses was concealed from the knowl- 
edge of the Israelites, to prevent that idolatrous 

veneration lor his remains, which would have cor- 
rupted the nation and offended God. Though idol 

• See Paber'e Difficulties of Romanism, chapter XVI. and the 
authorities there cited. 



80 

worship is of all things the most unreasonable, ab- 
surd, and injurious to religion, and though nothing 
is more directly and uniformly forbidden in the 
word of God, still, there is in human nature a 
strange and general propensity to this pollution. 
The descendants of Abraham were chosen out of 
the world, that they might abhor idols and worship 
the true God ; yet they were much given to idolatry. 
We might well suppose, what the scriptures clearly 
teach, that this idolatrous propensity is from the 
instigation of evil spirits ; and we can easily under- 
stand why the grand adversary should wish the 
people to know where the body of Moses was 
ouried, and why it was thus concealed from their 
knowledge. 

That the people would have worshipped the body 
of Moses, had they known where it was deposited, 
is confirmed, — if it needs confirmation, — by what 
we have recorded in the eighteenth chapter of the 
second book of Kings. King Hezekiah " did that 
which was right in the sight of the Lord, accord- 
ing to all that David his father did." And par- 
ticularly he pleased the Lord by his zeal in suppress- 
ing idolatry. " He removed the high places, and 
brake down the images, and cut down the groves, 
and brake in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had 
made ; for unto those days the children of Israel did 
burn incense unto it" Thus we are told that for 
several ages the people had offered divine honors to 
that image of a serpent, which, by an express com- 
mand of God, (Numbers, xxi. 6 — 9,) Moses had 
made and set up on a pole, that the sight of it might 
heal the wounded Israelites. No relic that can be 
named would be more truly valuable, or more grati- 
fying to the curiosity of Jews or Christians ; none 
that we could now more wish to see than that brazen 
serpent. It typified, indeed, the cross on which 
Christ suffered, " signifying what death he should 
die." It very affectingly reminded the Israelites of 



. 



81 

God's mercy to their fathers, and of his promise to 
raise them up a Prophet like unto Moses ; and it 
also reminds us of those institutions which were 
intended to be as " a schoolmaster to bring us to 
Christ." Had the cross been preserved, there is 
much reason to fear that the like idolatrous adora- 
tion would have, by Christians, been offered to it. 
Indeed, it is a fact, that the wood which is shown in 
various places, as pieces of the true cross, is avow- 
edly worshipped. It is not necessary to give any 
proof of what nobody will deny. Had we the real 
cross entire, known to be that on which Christ suf- 
fered, it would, no doubt, be still more grossly idol- 
ized, and there would be the same reason for des- 
troying it, as for breaking the image of the brazen 
serpent. Protestants worship, sincerely, we trust, 
and as devoutly as any Romanist, him who suffered 
upon the cross, as the only Mediator between God 
and man ; but do not worship the wood to which he 
was nailed, nor " the spear which pierced his side." 

It is said that Helena, the mother of Constantine 
the Great, a woman eighty years old, found at 
Jerusalem, in the fourth century, by digging in the 
earth, the cross on which Christ died. This, to say 
the least, may reasonably be doubted. Helena, we 
doubt not, may have believed that she had found 
what she sought for; but that wood should remain 
for so many ages buried in the ground without per- 
ishing, and that after so long an interval, it should 
be identified, are things highly improbable. II' any 
should resort, as do the Romanists, to miracles, we 
have good reason for saying in reply, thai divine 
wisdom would be more likely to destroy, than to 
preserve it by miracle. 

And supposing thai the empress Helena did. after 
three hundred years had elapsed, and alter mneh 
searching, find the true cross, this fact alone shows 
us how very little the Christians o( the fust three 
centuries regarded relics. The first disciples must 






82 

have known well, had they thought the matter worth 
regarding, how the cross was disposed of. And if it 
was not soon after the crucifixion destroyed, (which 
is the most probable,) there could have been no 
difficulty in ascertaining where it was ; and had they 
fell any particular veneration for it, there could have 
been no occasion in the fourth century to search for 
it as something long disregarded and lost. It is re- 
markable that we do not find, in all the New Testa- 
ment, that Christians of the first century had any 
religious regard for relics of any sort. The doctrines 
of the cross — of Jesus Christ and him crucified, and 
the duties of Christian life — what we must believe 
and do to be saved — repentance towards God and 
faith towards the Lord Jesus Christ, were the things 
which the first preachers of the gospel desired to 
know ; and these they were faithful to teach. But 
even then, while the apostles lived, there was operat- 
ing in the minds of some Christians, the same carnal 
propensity to depart from the spirit of religion, as we 
learn from Revelation and from what Paul wrote to 
the Corinthians. Many, like the Galatians, " having 
begun in the spirit," endeavored to be " made per- 
fect by the flesh," superstitiously " observing days, 
and months, and times and years." While the 
apostles lived, these evils were almost wholly sup- 
pressed : but soon after their decease, tares, as 
Christ predicted, were sown among the wheat in the 
field of his kingdom; — errors gradually crept into 
the church. Upon the foundation of Christ, Chris- 
tians soon began to "build wood, hay, stubble." 
Among other corruptions which continued to increase 
till the Reformation, this idolatrous regard for relics 
is among the most pernicious. Few things can be 
named which have produced so much gross decep- 
tion and imposture as the traffic in this trumpery, 
and its exhibition to the credulous. These relics are 
viewed, and as managed, they prove to be, the most 
productive riches of the churches which contain 



83 

them ; for " they bring no small gain to the crafts- 
men." Their genuineness is proved by pretended 
miracles. 

We have reason to believe and occasion to be 
thankful that, in regard to such relics, the wise provi- 
dence of God, as in older times, has so interfered, 
that very few if any things of this sort were by the 
Christians of the first century preserved, or have 
since been found. If any relic of the Saviour had 
been discovered ; the clothes that he wore, or things 
that he wrought with his own hands ; the spear which 
pierced his side j the nails which pierced his hands 
and feet, or the cross on which he died, we cannot 
doubt but thousands and millions of deluded souls 
would have worshipped them. We may so judge 
from the well-known propensity of mankind to idola- 
try and image-worship ; and we may so judge from 
the homage which is and long has been paid to 
things of this sort, which, at best, are doubtful, and 
many of them known to be false. It is remarkable 
that no traditionary knowledge of the person of 
Christ, or of Mary his mother, or her grave, was 
preserved by the primitive Christians. St. Paul 
says, " Though we have known Christ qftti the flesh, 
yet now henceforth know we him no more." They 
were then occupied in things infinitely more impor- 
tant ; what he had done and what he had taught to 
save mankind. How vain, then, as well as idola- 
trous must it be in men to make pictures or images 
of Christ after the flesh, and to "bow down to them 
and to worship them?" Protestants, like Sautre, 
the first English martyr to the Reformation, kk wor- 
ship him who Buffered on the cross ; but not the cross 
on which he suffered." We have no proof thai the 
apostles of Christ regarded that cross as more precious 
than any other wood. 

That these relics may be truly called u lying won- 
ders," * will appear but too evidently to those who 

* BThess. ii.9, 10, 11. 



84 

consider what things they pretend to exhibit ; such 
as u the instruments of our Lord's crucifixion ; the 
clothes wherein he was wrapped in infancy; the 
manger in which he was laid; the vessels in which 
he converted water into wine at the marriage feast; 
the bread which he brake at the last supper, and the 
vesture for which the soldiers cast lots." They pre- 
tended to produce " portions of the burning bush ; of 
the manna which fell in the wilderness ; of Moses' 
rod ; of Samson's honey-comb ; of Tobit's fish ; of 
the blessed Virgin's milk, and of our Saviour's blood. 
Also, the blood of St. Januarius ; the picture of the 
blessed Virgin, drawn by St. Luke ; one of her 
combs ; some relics of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob ; a 
part of the bodies of Lazarus, and of St. Mark ; a 
finger and an arm of St. Ann, the mother of Mary ; 
a piece of the Virgin's veil ; the staff delivered by 
our Lord to St. Patrick, and some of Joseph's breath, 
which an angel enclosed in a phial, and which was 
long adored in France, and was afterwards carried 
to Venice, and from Venice to Rome." In Loretto, 
they pretend to show the house in which Mary lived 
at Nazareth, " as having been carried there by four 
angels, and set down twice on the way." This 
legend " received the sanction of successive popes. 
Indulgences were promised to those who visit it in 
devotion." * 

I endeavor, in these remarks on the Reformation, 
to refer to authors that are of easiest access to com- 
mon readers; which authors give authorities for 
what they affirm. 

§ XL. The idolatrous exaltation of Mary, the 
mother of Jesus, is among the worst corruptions of 
Christianity ; and against this, also, we are constrain- 
ed to protest. Every Christian views her as the most 

* See the Protestant, chapter LII. and Southey's Book of the 
Church, chapter X. 



85 

distinguished on earth among the daughters of Eve, 
But this distinction does not exalt her to the honor 
of being worshipped, nor render the religious adora- 
tion which is so much addressed to her, the less 
idolatrous ; it does not authorize us to put any trust 
in her, as our advocate with the Father, or with our 
Lord Jesus Christ. 

The natural disposition of mankind to idolize men 
in proportion as they are distinguished in this world, 
is well known. Heroes and kings and emperors, 
while alive, or after their death, have been thus wor- 
shipped in all ages of the world. In the estimation 
of those who " believe that Jesus Christ is the Son 
of God," Mary has the highest honor ever bestowed 
on woman, and all generations will continue, as they 
ever have done, to call her blessed; to admire her 
happiness in being thus distinguished. But this dis- 
tinction gives her no title to divine honors, nor to 
any kind of religious adoration, more than is due to 
any other son or daughter of Adam's fallen race. 
Mary, in common with all others of the human fam- 
ily, is " concluded under sin." In being the mother 
of Jesus, she was merely passive ; she has done 
nothing to merit salvation ; and if she is saved, which 
we trust she is or will be, it is by that blood which 
was shed for us all — her sins are washed away, not 
by the birth, but by the death of her Saviour. In 
the wonderful plan of our redemption, it was re- 
quired that Christ should be " made of a woman." 
And in being so made, he is not the Saviour o( 
Mary more or less than of other women. And so 
far as we know and are taught of God, thousands 
and myriads of others may be in heaven as hi. 
and as highly honored as she. Thai the Christ 
might assume and sanctify OUT fallen nature, lie must 
be " the seed of the woman : M mfUSl he horn of some 
female. He assumed our common nature, and not 
particularly the nature of any individual. 

It is very remarkable, and much to our present 

S 



86 

purpose, that, as was before briefly noticed, our 
Saviour, after the commencement of his ministry, 
and acting as the Christ, paid no particular regard to 
his mother. He docs not call her his mother, but 
" woman" in which there is an evident fitness. In 
the three instances recorded of his speaking to her, 
two of them were reproofs of her interfering in his 
business : " Woman ! what have I to do with thee ?" 
As our common Saviour he is " the seed of the wo- 
man " — " the second Adam " — " the Lord from 
heaven." He has a common relationship " to all 
men, and especially to those who are of the house- 
hold of faith." In regard to religion and spiritual 
life, his mother and his brethren, — those whom he 
especially regards, are his faithful disciples, — they 
who are united with him as branches with the vine. 
Of this he made repeated and very remarkable dec- 
laration. Thus, " It was told him by certain who 
said, Thy mother and thy brethren stand without 
desiring to see thee. And he answered and said 
unto them, My mother and my brethren are those 
which hear the word of God and do it." * " While 
he talked to the people, his mother and his brethren 
stood without, desiring to speak with him. Then 
one said unto him, Behold thy mother and thy 
brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee. 
And he answered and said to him that told him, 
Who is my mother, and wiio are my brethren? 
And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples 
and said, Behold my mother and my brethren ! For 
whosoever shall do the will of my Father who is in 
heaven, the same is my brother and sister and 
mother." | These are his family — these his house- 
hold ; these are the relatives who are especially his 
favorites and friends. No earthly connection or re- 
lationship is worthy to be compared with this, by 
which we become the brethren of Christ. By adop- 

* Luke viii. 21, 29. f Matt xii. 46—50. 



b7 

tion and grace we are the sons of God, and heirs 
through hope of his everlasting kingdom. There 
are other passages of the gospels of the like import- 
No one indeed can read the history of our Saviour 
Christ, without observing what is so evident, that he 
showed more attention and favor to his disciples, 
than to his mother or to any of his relations accord- 
ing to the flesh. And the like did his disciples. In 
all the Acts of the Apostles Mary's name is mention- 
ed but once, and that once in a way which does not 
distinguish her as honored above the other women 
and his brethren. In their epistles they speak par- 
ticularly, and in high commendation of many other 
women ; but say nothing of Mary the mother of 
Jesus. This silence we may well believe was 
providentially designed. The Lord foresaw what 
idolatrous veneration w T ould be shown to Mary, and 
has manifested the same wisdom respecting her as 
he had long before done in concealing the body of 
Moses, and causing the brazen serpent to be destroy- 
ed. Our great prophet has so ordered the revelation 
of God's will, and of the doctrines of life, that Chris- 
tians have nothing to justify or excuse this Maryola- 
try, — this idolatrous exaltation of Mary. 

It seems strange that any reasonable person should 
suppose, or could possibly believe that Mary now, in 
the heavenly mansions, has an influence over Christ, 
exalted as he is at the right hand of God, when we 
are so clearly taught that in his state of humiliation, 
while here on the earth, he did not allow her, in any 
degree, to meddle in 11k* exercise of Ins ministry. 
But in this, as the well-informed Christian clearh 
sees, "he has done nil things well/ 1 And yet such 
is the perverse disposition of mankind to depart from 
the truth of God, and to worship the creature rather 
than the Creator, by a wry large part of Christians, 
prayers and Invocations and praises have been offer- 
ed to Mary as to a being who, in every phut , can 

hear the petitions, and know the beard and the 






88 

wants of all (millions at the same time) who call 
upon her, and is able to give them temporal and 
spiritual blessings. The ancient Pagans attributed 
less to their demigods than they who claim exclu- 
sively the name of Catholic, attribute to her whom 
they worship as " the mother of God," and the 
" queen of heaven." The King of heaven they do 
not so often address in words of adoration, as her 
whom they denominate its Queen! There are 
many ave-Marias to one Pater noster. Juno, the 
pagan queen of heaven, was not so much adored. 
Mary has probably more pictures, shrines, and 
images, than any other god or goddess that can be 
named. 

So popular has long since become the worship of 
this heavenly queen, that " each of the monastic 
orders claimed the Virgin Mary for its especial pa- 
troness. Some peculiar favor she had bestowed 
upon each. She had appointed their rule of life, or 
devised the pattern of their habit — enjoined upon 
them some new practice of devotion, or granted 
them some singular privileges ; she had espoused 
their founder with a ring, or fed him like a babe at her 
breast! Each of the popular orders had (as they 
taught and some no doubt believed) been assured 
by revelation, that the place in heaven for its depart- 
ed members was under her skirts ! " * Many other 
things equally false and still more extravagant have 
been taught respecting her ; some of them are too 
fulsome, indecent and disgusting to be repeated. 

Of direct prayers offered to Mary by Roman 
Catholics, vast numbers may easily be collected. 
The one following is cited as a sample by Faber in 
his Difficulties of Romanism, p. 191. " Comfort a 
sinner and give not thine honor to the alien or the 
cruel, I pray thee, O thou queen of heaven. Have 
me excused with Christ, thy Son, whose anger I 

* Book of the Church, chapter X. 



89 

fear, and whose fury I vehemently dread ; for against 
thee only have I sinned. O, virgin Mary, full of 
celestial grace, be not estranged from me. Be the 
keeper of my heart ; sign me with the fear of God ; 
confer upon me the soundness of life ; give me 
honesty of manners, and grant me at once to avoid 
sins and to love that which is just. O virgin sweet- 
ness, there neither was nor is thy fellow." " To the 
industrious repeater of this prayer (Mr. Faber adds, 
p. 193) Pope Celestine was pleased to grant three 
hundred days of pardon." So much more merito- 
rious and effectual did he, and do, we fear, thou- 
sands of others, deem it to pray to Mary, than to 
pray to God through Jesus Christ. 

§ XLI. In the last section, something was said of 
the idolatrous exaltation of Mary the mother of Jesus, 
as being superior to other human beings, and an 
object of religious adoration. Among other inven- 
tions for this purpose is what is called her Immacu- 
late Conception; that she was conceived and born 
spotless and pure, without original sin. In honor 
of this is a Romish Festival held on the eighth of 
December. The Papists, however, are not among 
themselves agreed respecting this doctrine, which 
has indeed been a subject of much controversy and 
division in that church which boasts so much of its 
unity. The Scotists and Franciscans strongly ad- 
vocated this tenet ; while the Thomists and the 
Dominicans were violently opposed to it. In Spain, 
especially, the controversy was so great, thai authors 
have compared it to "a violent hurricane, ^i\inu' 
much trouble and perplexity to several of the Roman 
pontiffs," who, with all their power and infallibility, 

feared to give a decided opinion in favor of either 

party. It is enough lor my present purpose to re- 
mind the reader that it is wholly without proof"; there 
is no good authority lbr Baying or believing that 
8* 



90 

Mary was not, like all others of the human race, 
conceived and bom in sin. Christ took our sinful 
nature (himself being without sin) to change and 
purify it; but if Mary, his mother, was, unlike the 
rest o( the human race, without sin, he did not take 
a sinful nature. But all the orders and sects and 
denominations of those, who submit to the dominion 
of the pope, agree, as Mr. Southey says,* ; ' in elevat- 
ing Mary to the highest rank in the mythology of 
the Romish Church. Many of them pretend to 
trace her in types throughout the Old Testament. 
She was the tree of life ; the ladder which Jacob had 
seen leading from heaven to earth ; the ever-burning 
bush ; the ark of the covenant ; the rod which brought 
forth buds and blossoms, and produced fruit; the 
fleece upon which alone the dew of heaven de- 
scended. Before all creatures and all ages she was 
conceived in the Eternal Mind ; and when the time 
appointed for her mortal manifestation was come, 
she, of all human kind, was produced without the 
taint of human frailty/' Such was the doctrine 
taught by many of the Papal Church, and against it 
the Reformers protested. 

Our Church in her annual services commemorates 
two interesting things respecting Mary; her annunci- 
ation and her purification ; but in both of them re- 
gard is chiefly had to our blessed Saviour ; in the 
former, to his incarnation, and in the latter, to his 
presentation in the temple, in fulfilment of what the 
law required, both of them being interesting parts in 
the great work of redemption. There is no proof or 
intimation in the word of God, nor representation 
in the services of our Church, that Mary is more 
divine, or more holy, or more worthy of adoration 
than other pious, Christian people, or that she is in 
any thing superior to a mere human being. We 
honor her as the mother of our Saviour, and call her 

• Book of the Church, chapter X. 



91 

blessed; but religious worship offered to her or to 
any creature we view as idolatry. 

§ XLIL What is said in the first chapter of St. 
Luke's Gospel, of the blessedness of Mary, seems to 
have been by many misunderstood. In the twenty- 
eighth verse it is written that " the angel came in unto 
her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favored, [or 
full of grace,] the Lord is with thee : blessed art thou 
among women." Again, in the forty-second verse, 
her cousin Elisabeth, saluting her, said, " Blessed 
art thou among women; " and in the forty-fifth verse, 
" Blessed is she that believed." And in the forty- 
eighth verse, Mary herself said, " From henceforth 
all generations shall call me blessed." From the 
first of these passages " is formed the ave- Maria ^ or 
hail Mary, in repeating of which consists a great 
part of the devotion of the Romanists. But there is 
nothing in that, or any other passage of God's word, 
which gives any the least authority for praying to 
Mary." Many Christians are favored of the Lord 
and full of grace. The word hail is no more than a 
friendly, common salutation. When Christ used it 
to Mary Magdalene and other women, (Matt, xxviii. 
9,) will any one say or believe, that he worshipped 
them ? 

" Blessed art thou among women," is a congratu- 
lation most justly offered to this, the most distin- 
guished among the daughters of Eve. But the like 
was long before said of Jael. "Blessed above women 
shall Jael, the wife of Heber the Kerilte, be; blessed 
shall she be above women in the tent."* The same 
Gfcreek word is w>ed. See the Greek translation 
called the Septuagint, which was used by the apos- 
tles; "Blessed is she that believed" and blessed is 
every one who truly believes in Jesus Christ 

In the forty-eighth verse another Greek word ifl 

* Judaea v. \M. 



92 

rendered blessed: " all generations shall call me 
blessed" or happy, as the word means. And so she 
has been, and will be called while the world endures. 
We doubt not but she truly believed, and if so, she 
will, in the end of the world, be among those to 
whom the Judge will say, " Come, ye blessed of my 
Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from 
the foundation of the world." 

Our Saviour pronounces blessedness on many 
descriptions of people in this present world : " Blessed 
are the poor in spirit; blessed are they that mourn ; 
blessed are the meek; blessed are the merciful;" 
and so of many others. It was very natural that 
Mary should be much affected when she thought of 
the very high honor of being the " woman " of whom 
the promised "seed" should be the "fruit;" an 
honor which, we cannot doubt, thousands of Jewish 
women had ardently desired, and for which they had 
earnestly prayed. Very naturally, and with the ut- 
most confidence, might she say, " All generations 
shall call me blessed." What greater happiness in 
this world can a believer in Christ imagine? 

In the eleventh chapter of St. Luke's Gospel is a 
passage which very clearly shows of what nature 
and degree, in the view of our Saviour and of the 
inspired writers, is the blessedness of Mary. A 
woman, who had for some time listened to his dis- 
courses, such as " never man spake," and probably 
had seen the miracle which he had just before 
wrought, as was perfectly natural, thought of the 
great honor and happiness of being the mother of 
such a son, and could not, it seems, refrain from ex- 
pressing aloud the thoughts which so affected her 
mind. She " lifted up her voice and said unto him, 
Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps 
which thou has sucked;" * using the word that Mary 
used. Our Lord's reply to that woman's remark is 

Luke i. 48. 



98 

worthy of the very serious regard of all Christians, 
and theirs, especially, who would exalt Mary to the 
honor of receiving religious adoration. " But he 
said, Yea, rather blessed are they tvho hear the word 
of God and keep it" This is very decided, and from 
the very highest authority ; it is perfectly intelligible, 
and it exactly corresponds with what the scriptures 
uniformly teach. We have before seen that Christ, 
as our Saviour, on several occasions declared that 
those whom he chiefly acknowledged as his mother, 
and sisters, and brethren, were not his kindred after 
the flesh, but his faithful disciples ; those who be- 
lieved his doctrine and obeyed his word. And here 
he positively declares that to hear the word of God 
and keep it, is more blessed than being the woman 
of whom he took his human nature. There was 
nothing meritorious in being his mother ; in that, 
Mary was merely passive. Its blessedness was the 
honor, the favor of being thus distinguished " among 
women," and being gratefully remembered and hon- 
ored by all generations, while the world continues. 
But this honor, this favor, great as it is, in itself im- 
plies no assurance of immortal blessedness ; whereas, 
they who hear the word of God and keep it, shall be 
forever happy; shall be saved with an everlasting 
salvation. Mary herself is saved, not by being the 
mother of Jesus, but by hearing and keeping God's 
word. " Blessed is she that believed" No honor 
of any woman in the church on earth can equal 
Mary's; while the world endures, will the disciples 
of Jesus view it as a great and very high favor to 
herself thai she was the mother of such a son ; but 
they who hear the word of God and keep it will be 
blest forever. In this world, they may not, like Mary, 
be called happy; they may be despised and perse- 
cuted, but hereafter, " they Bhall shine forth as the 

snn in the kingdom of their heavenly Father." Not 
generations of men only, but the host iA' heaven shall 
call them happy; even Christ iheir Judge shall sa\. 



94 

" Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom 
prepared for you." To all who hear the gospel, is 
freely offered this greatest of all blessedness. 

§ XLIIT. In the last three sections, something has 
been said of the idolatrous worship offered to Mary 
the mother of Jesus ; of the very false doctrine of 
her immaculate conception, and of the blessedness 
ascribed to her in St. Luke's Gospel. Another 
point which, for the purpose of increasing the super- 
stitious notions of her sanctity, and the supposed 
merits of celibacy, much taught by the Romanists, is 
her perpetual virginity. Respecting this point, I can 
very cordially say with the Rev. William Goode, in 
his excellent and learned work, on " the Divine Rule 
of Faith and Practice," that " it is with much un- 
willingness that I enter upon the discussion of this 
point lest I should appear to speak slightingly of one 
so highly honored of God, and to whom, if upon 
earth, we should be disposed to pay higher reverence 
and respect, than to the most potent empress that 
ever sat upon an earthly throne." * What he says 
on this subject in the pages following this quotation, 
I recommend to the perusal of those who have 
access to the work ; and it may be truly said to be a 
work " for the times." 

The early writers, who have treated of this subject, 
were of different opinions. They who favored the 
conceit of Mary's perpetual virginity did not view 
the belief of it as being necessary to true piety or a 
religious faith, nor did they appeal to tradition in 
proof of it ; but endeavored to prove it from the 
scriptures ; and this all who are acquainted with the 
scriptures know to be an entire failure. The scrip- 
tures, so far as they appear to regard this question, 
lead us to the contrary belief. And, as the writer 
above referred to says, p. 158, " It is worth observing 

# Vol. ii. p. 152, Philadelphia edition. 






95 

how the ground for belief of this doctrine has been 
shifted. The fathers who defend it place it upon 
the testimony of scripture, and arguments drawn 
from the propriety of the case. Our opponents, with 
the Romanists, seeing that nothing of the kind can 
be proved from the scripture, fall back upon tradi- 
tion, and quote the testimony of the very fathers, who 
appeal to the scriptures for the proof of it, as evi- 
dence of its being a doctrine established by an unin- 
terrupted tradition of the church." And we may 
hope, by the way, that the existing controversy be- 
tween Protestants and those who are not improperly 
called Low Papists, will have, among some good 
effects and more bad ones, this, of a better and more 
general knowledge of what is the just authority of 
tradition respecting essential articles of the Christian 
faith. On this much agitated and very interesting 
subject, several learned and very excellent works 
have been recently published in England, and some 
of them republished in this country. It is remarka- 
ble that this dogma of Mary's perpetual virginity is 
among the chief articles of religious belief, which, it 
is now said, we learn from tradition ; and the very 
little or rather no importance of this, shows how little 
we should gain by tradition, were its authority equal, 
as the Romanists contend, with the holy scriptures. 
We make no objection to any one's believing this, 
but protest against its being taught as a necessary 
article of belief, and stigmatizing, as unsound in 
faith, those who think it unessential. Religion has 
gained nothing and has lost much, by the various 
attempts of Christians to make that necessary to sol- 
vation in Jesus Christ, which God, in his revealed 
will, has not made necessary, and by pretending to 
be wise in spiritual things, beyond what he has 
caused to be written for our Learning. Christians 
will never be united, nor their religion appear in its 
beautiful garments of salvation till they agree in 

taking God's word for their guide, and "are per- 



96 

suaded that the holy scriptures contain all doctrine 
required as necessary for eternal salvation through 
faith in Jesus Christ" 

§ XLIV. To render the exaltation of Mary more 
complete, and the religious worship paid her more 
extensive, there is added what is called her Assump- 
tion, which, to give it the greater sanction, the Ro- 
manists commemorate by a festival. They teach, 
that as she was born without sin, so she died without 
suffering; and that her body being too pure and 
precious to see corruption and turn to dust like other 
human remains, was taken up into heaven and 
there glorified. This they pretend to prove by pre- 
suming that had her body been deposited any w x here 
on the earth, a treasure so precious would not have 
been concealed from the early Christians. I have 
had occasion already, in section XXXIX,, to give a 
much better reason for the ignorance or disregard of 
the Christians of the first century of the place where 
the remains of Mary were deposited. If her body 
was providentially concealed from the knowledge of 
the first Christians, it was for the like reason that the 
body of Moses was concealed from the Jews. But 
it is far more probable, that her grave was forgotten 
by reason of the little regard of the first Christians to 
such things : — for the like reason that they did not 
preserve the cross on which Christ suffered, and 
many other relics, which, were they now to be seen, 
would by thousands be worshipped. It is enough 
under this head to say that we have no manner of 
proof, nor any good reason for believing or suppos- 
ing, that her earthly remains did not, like the bodies 
of other mortals, return to the earth, " ashes to ashes ; 
dust to dust." This pretended assumption of Mary's 
body, is but one of the " signs and lying wonders," 
which are predicted in the word of God. 

Errors and corruptions began early to be sown in 
the church, like tares among wheat. In the first 



97 

century, they were scarcely visible, In the second, 
they began to appear. In the third and fourth, their 
number and their growth increased. In the fifth, 
sixth and seventh, they arrived to a baneful maturity, 
and they who did not embrace them were branded 
as heretics. 

May that blessed Lord, who has caused all holy 
scriptures to be written for our learning, give us 
grace so to hear and read and learn, and inwardly 
digest them, that, by patience and comfort of his 
Holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the 
blessed hope of everlasting life, which he has given 
us in our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen. 

§ XLV. I have noticed above forty articles or 
points practised by the Western Church, so called, 
at the commencement of the sixteenth century, 
against which those pious Christians, who thought 
that they were bound to obey God, rather than man, 
and to take the holy scriptures for their principal 
guide, protested. There are many more articles 
which may be added to the catalogue of those 
already noticed; but my present purpose is to men- 
tion but a few more, and the most of those few but 
briefly. Protestants should be well aware of " the 
face which Popery can assume, when addressing it- 
self to an educated mind ; " and particularly of whal 
is very common, — the saying that such and such 
things are not the doctrines of the Roman Church. 
And it is proper that I should often remind the read- 
er that I speak not so much of their doctrine, as of 
their practice; of what their religion is. els seen by 
Christians and by the world. I judge not of their 
hearts or motives or belief. In their bloodiest mas- 
sacres and most cruel persecutions, they may "think 
that they do God service."* The) who would 
know what are the doctrines of the Church of Rome, 

* John xvi. 9 



98 

will do well to read the history and the decrees of 
the Council of Trent, and the Catechisms of that 
church, which have been published. Our Saviour 
Christ has given us a plain rule of judging in these 
things: "By their fruits ye shall know them." 
Their fruits we can see, and from these form the 
besl judgment of what the tree is. The profession 
of men is a very uncertain criterion of what they 
truly are. Strictly speaking, we do not protest 
against any Church of Christ, however corrupt, but 
against its corruptions ; against its departure from 
God's word. I am not pretending to show what the 
Church of Rome avows as its doctrine, but what in 
practice she certainly tolerates, and by which, as a 
hierarchy, she is chiefly sustained. 

In section XXXVII. I said something of monkery 
and monastic institutions, and of the reasons why 
Protestants reject them. The good which they have 
effected has, as we believe, been overbalanced by 
more and much greater evils. In this forty-fifth sec- 
tion I would direct your attention to the subject of 
nunneries; — to those convents in which myriads of 
females are imprisoned for life. In Europe, where 
those institutions are of long standing, and their evil 
effects on morals and practical religion are better 
known, many of them have been suppressed, and 
those remaining are watched with a more jealous 
eye. In this country, where they are little known, 
and where every artifice is used to render them 
popular and attractive to the vanity and enthusiasm 
of young females, some have been recently establish- 
ed, and there is reason to fear that their number may 
be increased. The burning of a convent in this 
vicinity, a few years since, by a lawless mob, though 
as nothing when compared with the massacres of 
Protestants in France and Ireland, and other places, 
was an enormous outrage, condemned, I believe, and 
detested by every pious Protestant in our country, 
and it has excited the sympathy of thousands, and 



99 

will have no small tendency to the increase of such 
institutions. 

I shall not speak of the arts which are well know n 
for many ages to have been used to induce females 
to take the veil, as it is called, nor shall I question 
the sincerity or the piety of any amongst us who 
may prefer that mode of life. But we know what 
human nature is. The spirit of enthusiasm and the 
love of notice and of fame, which will induce the 
young widow of Hindostan to be burnt with her 
husband's body on the funeral pile, will very natur- 
ally operate in the mind of a Christian female, who 
hopes to live many years at ease, and to enjoy the 
fame of her supposed sacrifice and devotedness to 
God. Even the spirit of martyrdom has been, in 
many cases, especially in later years, contaminated 
by this love of fame. It has been sought for in a 
way at variance with our Saviour's direction : " If 
they persecute you in one city, flee to another," 
which the apostles accordingly did. That love of 
excitement, which is natural to man, and prefers, 
" wonderful works " to good works, operates too 
much among Protestants, and is one cause of our 
division. 

And supposing that females enter nunneries ever 
so voluntarily, and after mature consideration and 
counting the cost, which in many cases they doubt- 
less do, why should they be imprisoned? Why. by 
locks and bars, and the most rigid supervision, be 
debarred of all free intercourse with the rest <>f tlu- 
world, — of their relations even? If this be neces- 
sary to preserve their virtue, it is hardly worth what 
it costs. " There is, indeed, far more true holiness 
in the discharge of duties in the midst of the temp- 
tations of the world, than in flying from both duties 
and temptations to the artificial atmosphere" of a 
convent. It is, besides, a very easy thing, lor (hose 
who are hid from the world, and are Been onlj in 
such manner and place as they choose, to maintain 



100 

the reputation of sanctity. But it is not so with 
those who live in society, and engage in the busi- 
ness and duties of life and religion ; their works and 
their manners, both in public and domestic life, are 
open to those who are best qualified to judge. By 
their fruits they are known. 

Imprisonment for life, is justly deemed the great- 
est of punishments, that of death excepted, and many 
think that this even should not be excepted. And 
to me it has seemed strange that a civilized people, 
Christians even, should suffer their citizens, without 
law or conviction of crime, to be thus wholly debar- 
red of their liberty. Is it right, — is it not very great 
cruelty, that a young girl, because in a fit of enthu- 
siasm or disgust with the world, or for other cause, 
enters the convent, should endure, in consequence, 
this dreadful punishment? If it be said that she is 
reconciled to her condition, and happy in her con- 
finement, why not then tear away the grates, open 
the doors of her prison, and release her from all 
restraint ? Do this, and then, and not till then, shall 
we believe that she has no desire for liberty. That 
such hopeless confinement has, in ages past, caused 
a vast deal of wretchedness is known to the world, 
though not by Christians, as it should be, considered. 
How very much more suffering has been endured 
in nunneries, we shall not know till that day when 
the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed, and the 
works of darkness be brought to light. Lady Mary 
Wortley Montagu says, after visiting a nunnery at 
Vienna, " I never in my life had so little charity for 
the Roman Catholic religion, as since I see the 
misery it occasions so many poor, unhappy wo- 
men." But I would not dwell on this : I am 
pleased in believing that those sufferings, and in- 
deed, the number of convents, are being diminished. 
And I hope, through God's blessing, I may never 
have " little charity " for any denomination of Chris- 
tians, and especially for those who steadfastly main- 



101 

tain so many of the essentials of Christianity, as " do 
Roman Catholics." But I would contend for that 
liberty wherewith Christ has made us free. He 
came into this world not to subject men to bondage, 
but to liberate the captive. 

What our Saviour and his apostle Paul said of the 
cares and sufferings of the married state, has regard 
chiefly, as St. Paul expresses it, to " the present dis- 
tress;" to the peculiar circumstances of those times. 
And in all ages, there are many men and women, 
who, without retiring from society, prefer a single life. 
And in some cases, no doubt, they may not only 
avoid the labor and trouble of family cares, but may 
serve God more quietly by living in a single state. 
But why should they retire from the field of duty, 
and from the sight of man? The command of our 
Saviour is, " Let your light so shine before men, that 
they may see your good works, and glorify your 
Father which is in heaven." In the apostles' day, 
there were women particularly devoted to the duties 
of religious life : but they were widows who had 
been married and brought up children, and they 
were not to be so devoted, till they were sixty years 
old. Their duty was especially to instruct the 
younger of their own sex. (See 1 Tim. v. 9, 10 ; 
and Titus ii. 3, 4, 5.) Such deaconesses would be 
infinitely more profitable in the church than nuns. 
The establishments of Shakers (so called) in our 
country, are less inconsistent with pure and undefined 
religion, than Popish convents. They arc not 
drones, but are honestly industrious in a lawful call- 
ing, and are useful members of society, but no! so 
useful as they might be. And their devotion to a 
single life is indeed voluntary ; lor they arc not im- 
prisoned nor debarred of thai liberty which is the 

gib of God; nor is their conscience entangled by 
any unlawful oaths. And we have txi)(n\ reason to 
believe that their morals would not suffer by a com- 
parison with the convents of anv country. It i> said 
9* 



102 

of Napoleon, who excelled in worldly wisdom, that 
he refused to permit perpetual vows to a convent 
which he had founded, because the nuns might after- 
wards prefer returning to the world, where they 
might become useful members of society; and said 
that " nunneries assail the very roots of population, 
and that it is impossible to calculate the loss which 
a nation sustains in having ten thousand women 
shut up in cloisters." 

The lawfulness of such vows may be questioned, 
both on political and on Christian principles. 
Whether the law of the land allows of such extra- 
judicial oaths, and especially whether it allows a 
young girl to swear that she will retire from the 
common duties of social life, and consign herself to 
perpetual bondage, should be considered. And 
whether such retirement to convents and nunneries, 
where, comparatively, they can be of but little use to 
the world, or to the church, or to religion, is not, in 
the sense of our Lord's parables, burying their talent 
in the earth, or keeping their pound in a napkin, 
should, by the Christian, be still more seriously con- 
sidered. Of those who are blest with health and 
strength, God requires a life of active benevolence, 
fruitful in good works. Instead of living at ease in 
the enjoyment of what others have given for char- 
itable use, they should themselves labor, that they 
may have wherewith to " support the weak," and 
" to give to him that needeth." 

It is, I believe, becoming more and more a con- 
scientious principle with Protestants, that all should 
enjoy a free and full toleration in the choice and the 
exercise of religion, and that persecution is con- 
demned by the gospel of Christ. No one, I believe, 
is more averse to persecution than myself. And 
though I view the votes of those who enter cloisters 
as sinful ; as tempting God ; as swearing that they 
will never do what may afterwards appear to be 
their duty, and the will of God respecting them ; and 



103 

though I view the imprisonment of nuns as wholly 
unjustifiable, I am neither authorized nor desirous to 
judge those who think differently. To their own 
Master let them stand or fall. As convents have 
been generally managed, I view them as prejudicial 
to morals and to religion. Yet if the vows and the 
imprisonment were discontinued, they might be ren- 
dered useful as charitable institutions for the benefit 
of some whose age or state of health, or other cir- 
cumstances, render such an asylum both convenient 
and justifiable. 

§ XL VI. I propose to say something on the sub- 
ject of persecution, and the Romanist " will surely 
say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself." 
That Protestants are in some degree justly liable to 
such retort, I shall not deny. My desire is to view 
this, and every other subject, with candor and im- 
partiality. We naturally see a mote in a brother's 
eye, sooner than a beam in our own eye. As it is 
the duty of every private Christian to consider his 
own sins and imperfections, rather than the faults of 
others : so is it with all parties, and sects, and Chris- 
tian denominations. It is far more agreeable to 
Christian charity, and vastly more profitable to search 
for our own errors and deficiencies, than for what 
we may deem the corruptions or faults of any other 
community of Christians. 

Though with grief and shame we acknowledge 
that Protestants have been guilty of persecution, they 
who know any thing of the history of the Church 
during the last three or four hundred years, must 
think it strange that the Catholics, (as they affect 
exclusively to denominate themselves,) should he 
our accusers! And yet so it is. To give one from 
a thousand instances : Pope Pius \ ., in bis sentence 

of excommunication against Klizabeth, queen o( 

England, speaks of her persecuting the Papists, and 
of her forbidding " the exercise of the true religion, 



104 

which (he says) Mary, the lawful queen of famous 
memory, had, by the help of this see, restored." He 
had the assurance to say this in the face of the world, 
lauding her, whose most cruel persecutions have 
justly given her the name of Blood?/ Mary, and when 
the fires of Smithfield were so recently extinguished! 
It was also about the time of that general and most 
bloody massacre of St. Bartholomew's, when so 
many thousands of Protestants of every age and sex 
were in cold blood murdered in Paris, and other 
parts of France, and for which there were great re- 
joicings in Rome. The popes undoubtedly then, 
though I w^ould hope not now, thought it a merito- 
rious act in Papists to kill Protestants, and a very 
great wickedness in Protestants in any way to perse- 
cute Papists. We may believe that there are now 
but very few, if any Protestants, who justify any 
persecutions, even those of their own brethren, in 
times past. Most gladly would I extend the same 
charitable remark to those of the Romish Church ; 
but they would not accept it as charitable, or as 
complimentary ; they say that their church never 
changes in doctrines or tenets ; and with grief I add, 
that we have great reason to fear that they say it 
truly ; that the same spirit remains, waiting for the 
power and opportunity of acting. We should be 
ever ready to acknowledge past errors, and continu- 
ally to increase in all virtue and godliness of living. 
In reading church history, few things, if any, are 
more painful to a pious disciple of a merciful Saviour, 
than the intolerant spirit of myriads who professed 
and called themselves Christians. The weapons of 
their warfare were carnal. The gospel, like the 
religion of Mahomet, has been propagated by the 
sword, and nations compelled to be baptized. None 
certainly, who have borne the Christian name have 
erred more wickedly in this, than they who boast of 
unchangeable perfection and infallibility. We boast 
of no perfection in this ; but trust that we are in a 



105 

great and happy degree reformed; we are like Gideon 
and his little band, though " faint, yet pursuing/' 
With the utmost confidence we appeal to the fact, 
that much, very much, has been effected; — that 
Protestants, through God's blessing, have been in- 
strumental in checking, in a very great degree, the 
horrors of persecution. 

The difference between Papists and Protestants in 
this, may now be seen throughout the world. In 
those countries where the full power still remains in 
the hands of the former, Protestants are not, even in 
this age of light and liberty, tolerated ; they are not 
allowed to build churches and worship in them ; — 
they may not publish what they believe by preach- 
ing or by the press. There is a small place of Pro- 
testant worship in the city of Rome, which they were 
constrained, if I am rightly informed, to grant. 
When the act giving the Papists the same political 
privileges as the Protestants, was discussed in the 
British parliament, those who opposed it, urged 
among other reasons, the fact, that at that very time, 
Englishmen were not permitted in Rome, even to 
meet for social worship. Soon after, a small place 
of worship was allowed them. In France, and some 
other countries called Catholic, their power is re- 
stricted. And how is it in these United States and 
in the British dominions, and other countries where 
the reformed doctrines prevail ? The Papists have 
precisely the same liberty as others; to build and to 
preach, and to publish what they please, and it is ;i 
liberty of which they avail themselves to the utmost 
extent. And no Protestant Episcopalians, I believe, 
desire that the religious liberty of any sect or denomi- 
nation should be restricted. We ask for thai liberty 
only which we gladly allow them; — that they would 
do to others as they would have others do to them, 

But while things continue as they are, we sec what 

great advantage they take of Protestant toleration* 
While we allow our people to read their books, to 



106 

attend their worship, and their convents and schools 
even, without restraint, they, as far as is in their 
power, pursue the contrary course. They have their 
Index Purgatorius, — the Bible even, which Christ 
commands us to read, they consider as a book, by 
the knowledge of which their religion would be 
much endangered. They will not allow their peo- 
ple to be present at family prayers, in the houses of 
Protestants where they reside. 

The evident consequence of this course is that 
they, the common people, especially of their com- 
munion, are generally ignorant of the reasons why 
we protest against many of their practices, and they 
are taught to believe many things respecting the 
tenets and practice of Protestants, which are wholly 
untrue, and which we of the Episcopal Church 
should abhor. My desire is that the people may- 
have equal liberty to " prove all things," and that 
they may understandingty "hold fast that which is 
good." If any, after fair and full examination of 
what the truth is in Christ Jesus, prefer uniting with 
the Roman Catholics, my wish is that they may not 
be opposed or injured, — " to their own Master let 
them stand or fall." VTe know who has said, that 
if any man build on the foundation of Jesus Christ, 
v:ood, hay, stubble, at the great day of trial his works 
shall be burnt, and he will suffer loss; and though, 
by the foundation on which he builds, he may be 
saved, it will be as by fire; not as we believe by the 
fire of their purgatory; but as a man surrounded by 
combustible materials on fire, escapes from the peril, 
leaving all behind. (1 Cor. iii. 10 — 15 ; xlvii.) We 
protest also against what is called The Inquisition; 
that most horrid tribunal of which a pious Christian 
can scarcely think without shuddering. The history 
of its tortures and unparalleled cruelties are so well 
known, and by Protestants so generally detested, that 
I need not dwell upon them. It is an institution 
peculiar to Popery, and has been by the popes, and 



107 

by their influence and authority, introduced into 
several countries. And as their laws are like those 
of the Medes and Persians, which alter not, we can- 
not doubt but that the Inquisition will be again in- 
troduced whenever and wherever their power and 
their policy will admit of it. 

The name of Inquisitors was, it seems, first given, 
in the beginning of the thirteenth century, to certain 
persons, or legates, appointed by Pope Innocent III. 
to search for and extirpate those whom he stigma- 
tized as heretics, among the people called Waldenses. 
These people, distinguished also by other names, 
inhabited some parts of the Alps, and the south of 
France. Their views of religion were similar to 
what Protestants now hold, and it is probable that 
their ancestors had never embraced the corruptions 
of Popery. The persecutions they endured in the 
thirteenth and following centuries were horrid in the 
extreme. " These spiritual champions, who en- 
gaged in this expedition, upon the sole authority of 
the pope, without either asking the advice or de- 
manding the succors of the bishops, and who inflict- 
ed capital punishments upon such of the heretics as 
they could not convert by reason and argument, 
were distinguished in common discourse by the title 
of Inquisitors, and from them the formidable and 
odious tribunal called the Inquisition derived its 
original." * The pontiffs found those instruments so 
useful for their purpose, " that they established mis- 
sionaries of a like nature, or, in other words, placed 
Inquisitors in every city whose inhabitants had the 
misfortune of being suspected of heresy." They 
had influence enough to establish iliis tribunal in 
Spain especially, in which Protestants wen 4 numer- 
ous, who, by the most horrid cruelties, were extirpa- 
ted. But for persecution Protestantism would 
probably have prevailed in France and Sp* *nd 

Mobheini, cent. Mil. 



108 

perhaps in Italy, no less than in England. " The 
Romanists proceeding upon the principle of exter- 
minating heresy, did their work effectually in Spain. 
It our bloody Mary, instead of dying providentially 
when she did, had lived to the age of Elizabeth, the 
same work would have been done as effectually in 
England. Every person whom they suspected of 
favoring the doctrines of the Reformation was seized 
without respect to sex or rank, and all whom they 
failed to terrify into a recantation were burnt." * 

Let us love those who love the Lord Jesus Christ. 
All who believe in the essential doctrines of his 
cross, especially that he is the Son of God, and that 
he has put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, 
should desire, and should endeavor to be united. 

§ XLVII. The chief object of these remarks is to 
call the attention of our people to the reasons of the 
Reformation, and to the points wherein Protestants, 
those especially of the Protestant Episcopal Church, 
disagree with the Roman Catholics. And this for 
three reasons : First, because a bishop of the Roman 
Church, by a printed circular directed to our bishops, 
and intended no doubt, to operate upon the laity, 
has represented that a large part of Episcopalians, in 
England especially, have become so favorable to the 
distinctive tenets of the Papists, that very few points 
remain to justify a separation. Secondly, because 
this is fast becoming the most important subject of 
theological controversy throughout the Christian 
world ; and, thirdly, because of the ignorance of our 
people, and, I fear I may say, the apathy of Protest- 
ants generally, respecting the points of this moment- 
ous controversy. And though I suggest, under 
each head, some few of the reasons for our rejecting 
what we deem dangerous errors, it should be kept in 
mind that what I say is but little of what might be 

London Quarterly Review, number XII. article 1. 



109 

said, and has been written and published, upon this 
controversy. 

In the present article, I would say something of 
the effects of baptism, and of sin afterwards commit- 
ted. I am well aware that among Christians, Pro- 
testants especially, there is a diversity of opinion on 
this subject. And some very serious Christians 
seem to be in doubt respecting what are precisely 
the effects of baptism, upon infants particularly. 
And, perhaps, it would be wise in some teachers to 
be less positive on a subject so mysterious. It is 
sufficient, for my present purpose, to show that the 
Protestant Episcopal Church differs from the Ro- 
manists on the subject, and, especially, on the doubt 
and difficulty of obtaining pardon of sins committed 
after baptism. The Papists, if I mistake not, teach 
that all past sins are washed away by the act (optis 
operatum) of baptism, and that they who sin after 
baptism have no second fountain to wash away this 
uncleanness ; they have no more such easy access to 
a perfect remission and forgiveness. If they do ob- 
tain pardon, it must be by their sacrament of pen- 
ance, and meritorious good works, such as visiting 
the shrine of some saint or favorite relic. But, gen- 
erally, such must, as they teach, be after death expi- 
ated by the excruciating pains of purgatory, as long, 
we may say, as their pope sees fit to continue these 
sufferings ; for, according to their practice, he has 
full power to shorten, and even to terminate these 
sufferings. 

Of the doctrines of our Church on this momentous 
subject none of you can be ignorant She Bays, in 
her sixteenth article, " They are to be condemned 
which deny the place of forgiveness to such as truly 
repent." She declares to her members, as by God's 
word she is authorized, that u if we confess our >ius, 
God is faithful and just to forgive our sins, and to 
cleanse us from all unrighteousness;" that he has 
commissioned his ministers "to declare and pro- 
10 



110 

nounce to his people, being penitent, the absolution 
and remission of their sins. That he pardoneth and 
absolveth all those who truly repent and unfeignedly 
believe his holy gospel ;" and that " he hath prom- 
ised forgiveness of sins to all those who, with hearty 
repentance and true faith, turn unto him." 

In regard to the effects of baptism, we know that 
a part, and, I believe, the greater part of Christians 
have been baptized in infancy, and, of course, all 
the sins which they commit are after baptism. If 
any say that original sin is washed away by the opus 
operation of that sacrament, they must, of course, 
hold that infants who die unbaptized are " damned." 
But original sin cannot be truly called their sins; 
these are what individuals actually commit. If the 
doctrine were true that there is no promise of for- 
giveness of sins committed after baptism, receiving 
it, in early life, especially, must seem fearful to those 
who are sensible of their natural infirmities. This 
notion was imbibed by some Christians in early 
centuries, and the effect was, that some delayed 
baptism, that they might more safely live in sin, 
and others, from fear that their sins after baptism 
would not be forgiven.* If this notion were correct, 
baptizing infants would seem to be placing them in 
awful peril ; for though we believe that some sanc- 
tifying efficacy accompanies their baptism, we have 
no certain evidence that they who have been bap- 
tized in their infancy, are not, other things being 
equal, as liable to commit sin as they who have not 
been baptized. If their sponsors are faithful to 
bring them up, as the Church requires, in the nur- 
ture and admonition of the Lord, this makes a great 
difference. We may well hope that a truly peni- 
tent believer in Christ will be forgiven. We know 
that one Simon, as recorded in Acts, though bap- 
tized by a minister of Christ, "full of the Holy Ghost 

* Bingham, book XI. chapter VI. 



Ill 

and of wisdom," not having true repentance, was 
not forgiven ; for an apostle declared him to be " in 
the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity." Peter 
exhorted him to repent, which, had he done, he 
would probably have been forgiven. 

Our Church teaches that the sanctifying grace of 
the sacraments depends on the state of the mind (in 
adults, certainly,) when received. She " requires of 
persons to be baptized; repentance, whereby they 
forsake sin, and faith, whereby they steadfastly be- 
lieve the promises of God made to them." And of 
those who come to the Lord's supper, not only that 
they have repentance and faith in God's mercy, 
through Christ, but also a thankful remembrance of 
his death, a purpose to lead a new life, " and to be 
in charity with all men." And she declares, (Arti- 
cle XXV.,) that " in such only as worthily receive 
the sacraments they have a wholesome effect or 
operation." She teaches " the necessity of baptism, 
ivhcre it may be had; but she does not teach, nor 
does the scripture teach that there is no forgive- 
ness to any penitent Reliever till he is baptized. 
Baptism is a sacramental sign and assurance to a 
penitent believer that his sins are forgiven, and that 
he is " a member of Christ, a child of God, and an 
inheritor of the kingdom of heaven;" that he is a 
member of Christ's church, and in covenant with 
God, which assurance they have not, who are un- 
baptized. And to baptized children the same great 
blessings are sealed; to them it is an assurance, 
when they come of age and take upon themselves 
the sacramental obligation, that, if they repent and 
believe in Christ, their sins are forgiven, and that 
they "are children of God," and, saith St Paul, 
"if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs 
with Christ, if so be that they sutler with him," 
Baptism, when rightly viewed, is a great comfort, 
and strengthens our faith through life. To this holy 
sacrament may you, who were baptized in child- 



112 

hood, continually look back as to a token of God's 
mercy to your soul through Jesus Christ ; that you 
live in your Saviour ; and that if you sin, (in case 
you repent,) you have him as an advocate with the 
Father, who is the propitiation for your sins ; " for the 
gifts and calling of God are without repentance." 

§ XL VIII. We differ, also, from the Romanists 
respecting their claim to be exclusively the Catholic 
Church, and their denying that the title belongs to 
any Christians who are not of their communion, 
who do not bow to the authority of their pope. We 
hold, as do most Christians, that there is " One 
Catholic and Apostolic Church," including all of 
every age and nation who are " members incorporate 
in the mystical body of Christ ; " it is that general or 
universal church, " which is the blessed company of 
all faithful people ; " of all who u are heirs, through 
hope of God's everlasting kingdom." Of the im- 
propriety of denominating any one branch of this 
church general " the Catholic Church," as though no 
others appertained to it, has been already noticed. 
They may as justly make exclusive claim to the 
name of Christian, as that of Catholic. They do 
claim, indeed, to be the whole Church, and stigma- 
tize, as heretics, those who protest against the errors 
mentioned in the sections preceding ; even the Greek 
Church, which is more ancient, and less corrupt than 
themselves, they do not allow to be of the Catholic 
Church. The reason of their being so tenacious of 
this title is sufficiently evident. And, also, as I 
would here particularly observe, you may easily see 
the reason why they are so ready to complain of 
being treated with disrespect, when they are desig- 
nated by words the most appropriate and suitable to 
distinguish them from other Christians ; such as 
Papists, Popish, Popery, and the like. No other 
Christians, I believe, are in like manner querulous 
and arrogant in their claims to respect. Others are, 



113 

as they ought to be, willing to be distinguished by 
such appellations as are most characteristic of their 
tenets, or of what is most peculiar to themselves. 
One sect of Christians is distinguished by peculiar 
notions respecting baptism, and they are willing to 
be called Baptists. They, whose most distinguishing 
tenet is that every congregation of Christians is a 
complete church and independent of all others, make 
no complaint of being called Congregationalists or 
Independents. We who, in this country, are most 
distinguished by adherence to the Episcopal govern- 
ment, or the order of bishops in Christ's church, are 
willing to be distinguished as Episcopalians, and 
our religion as Episcopacy ; and when called pre- 
latists, we make no complaint. So, too, there are 
many who maintain that the true Church of Christ is 
neither Congregational nor Episcopal, but Presbyte- 
rian, and they are not offended at being called Pres- 
byterians. 

Now there is no one sect or part of the Church 
Catholic, by any one tenet so strikingly distinguished 
from all others, as the Church of Rome is by its 
popes. They are an order of ecclesiastical rulers 
peculiar to that church ; necessary, indeed, to its 
hierarchy and very existence as a distinct pari of the 
Church Universal. How then can they be otherwise 
so well and so accurately distinguished from other 
Christians as by such appellations as refer to that, 
their most distinguishing tenet ? We view the Ro- 
manists as a respectable body of Christians, and 
would not treat them, — I certainly would not treat 
them disrespectfully. We often call them Catholics, 
in compliance with custom, and in complaisant sub- 
mission to their uncharitable claims, not meaning by 
such phraseology to allow thai they have any better 
claim to it than the Greek Church, or the Church o( 
England, or of Russia. They call us heretics, a 

most opprobrious term, and deny to us any \io\)c ot 
salvation, while they would have you think it dis- 
10* 



114 

respectful to call them Papists ; though their whole 
system depends on the pope's supremacy! I am 
thus particular respecting this point, that you maybe 
reminded of the reason and the propriety of our 
denying to them the exclusive right to the term 
Catholic, and of the unreasonableness of their com- 
plaint of being treated with disrespect, when we call 
them Papists. The reason why they are so tena- 
cious of this title, you can easily perceive ; it is to 
support this claim of being the whole Universal 
Church, " out of which there is no salvation. 7 ' 

§ XLIX. Protestants differ from Papists in the 
number of days appropriated to the commemoration 
of saints departed this life. By the latter, almost 
every day of the year is thus appropriated. By us, 
of the Protestant Episcopal Church, some few of 
such days are observed, in commemoration of saints, 
not of doubtful character, but of the holy Evangelists 
and first inspired teachers of the Christian faith ; and 
to those few we render no idolatrous honors. It is 
well known that, at the Reformation, the Church of 
England retained some old customs, not only in 
compliance w T ith the (then) popular prejudice, but 
from the correct principle of not separating from 
other Christians on account of things in themselves 
indifferent, nor rejecting ancient usages any farther 
than the word of God, and the purity of religion 
require. The appropriation of days and seasons to 
the commemoration of the more remarkable events 
of the Saviour's history, we consider as highly 
proper and of good effect. The addressing prayer, 
or invocation to saints, is a practice, which, as the 
Bishop of London says, " began in poetry, and 
ended in idolatry." When we assemble on the 
saint's days, so called, for public worship, it is our 
duty, in obedience to the Church, to use the service 
appointed, — in which there is nothing superstitious 
or exceptionable. In regard to these days, we may 



115 

well apply the words of St. Paul to the Romans: 
" One man esteeming one day above another ; an- 
other esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be 
fully persuaded in his own mind. He that regardeth 
the day, regardeth it unto the Lord ; and he that 
regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard 
it." My views on this subject correspond with what 
the present Bishop of London has expressed in his 
late Charge, p. 32. " I desire more particularly to 
call your attention to the duty incumbent upon you, 
of celebrating divine service upon each of the days 
on which we commemorate the leading events in 
the history of our blessed Lord ; not only his nativity, 
crucifixion, and resurrection, but his circumcision, 
his manifestation to the Gentiles, and his glorious 
ascension." He evidently thinks, as I certainly do, 
that " those observances, which are appointed in 
honor of our blessed Lord himself, and the solemn 
commencement of our great penitential fast, (Ash 
Wednesday,) are entitled to peculiar respect." 

I have now mentioned forty-nine particulars of 
the practice of the Western Church in the sixteenth 
century, which we view as corrupt, idolatrous, and 
contrary to the revealed will of God, and, accord- 
ingly, reject them. Many others might be added, 
such as their addition to the three orders of the 
Christian ministry, and setting up one called the 
pope, claiming authority over all the churches, and 
also over the kings, and rulers, and nations of the 
earth, and the power of setting aside the laws of 
God. Also, various orders of Monks, Jesuits, and 
Friars, devoted to the papal hierarchy. These, and 
others, we reject, as not belonging to the Christian 
ministry. Those who arc truly the governors and 
teachers in the Church they have degraded, styling 
them the secular clergy, and their authority is in a 
great degree usurped by popes, cardinals, abbots, 
and other monks. With them, all bishops are sub- 



116 

ject to the pope. u Bishop of bishops was an idea 
abhorred by the primitive church." 

I might notice many superstitious fooleries and 
puerile conceits, which, to say the least, are worse 
than useless. There is in our fallen nature a pro- 
pensity to substitute forms and ceremonies for the 
true spiritual religion of the heart, the inward fear 
and worship of Almighty God. The w^ord of God 
requires us, through Jesus Christ, the one and only 
.Mediator, to " worship the Father in spirit and in 
truth ; for the Father seeketh such to worship him." 
The slavery of formal ordinances is a bondage from 
which Christ has redeemed us, and the folly of re- 
turning to that slavery St. Paul has very fully shown. 
If any one doubts this, let him read the Epistle to 
the Galatians. 

In the style, and manner, and neglect, of preach- 
ing, a reformation was much needed. The little 
preaching then in use, was chiefly on the legends of 
saints, pretended miracles, the authority of the 
Church, the increase of its revenues, and the dis- 
tinctive principles, or rather practices of the papal 
system. To give one sample from a thousand, when 
Zuinglius, afterwards a great reformer, appeared to 
take charge of the church in Zurich, to which he was 
elected, the chapter fearing that he might favor the 
Reformation, " it was agreed that the most important 
duties attached to his new office, should be distinctly 
pointed to him. You will use your utmost diligence, 
he was gravely admonished, in collecting the reve- 
nues of the chapter, not overlooking the smallest 
item. You will exhort the faithful, both from the 
pulpit and in the confessional, to pay all dues and 
tithes, and to testify, by their offerings, their love to 
the Church. You will be careful to increase the in- 
come that arises from the sick, from masses, and, in 
general, from all ecclesiastical ordinances. The 
chapter added, As to the administration of the sacra- 
ments, preaching, and personally watching over the 



117 

flock, these also are among the duties of the priest ; 
but for the performance of these you may employ a 
vicar to act in your stead ; especially in preach- 
ing." * 

We may well suppose that such regulations did 
not cause him to be less favorable to the Reforma- 
tion. Enriching the Church was much more regard- 
ed than the renewal of the mind with holy affections, 
and the wood of the cross, than the evangelical 
doctrines of him who suffered upon it. Preaching 
" Jesus Christ and him crucified," is the ordinance 
which God has appointed for producing " repentance 
towards God, and faith towards the Lord Jesus 
Christ." We know, indeed, as St. Paul says, that 
" whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord 
shall be saved ; " but, as the same apostle adds, 
" How shall they call on him in whom they have not 
believed? and how shall they believe in him of 
whom they have not heard ? and how shall they hear 
without a preacher ? and how shall they preach, ex- 
cept they be sent?" Were there no other good 
fruit of the Reformation, than this which it has so 
wonderfully produced, the preaching Jesus Christ as 
" the way, and the truth, and the life," as " the end 
of the law for righteousness to every one who be- 
lieveth," we might well believe that it is the work of 
God, ordered by his overruling providence, though 
fallible men, and, perhaps, some worldly, wicked 
men, were made the instruments of this wonderful 
revival. 

We may say with Bishop Stillingfleet, thai we 
charge the Romanists "with those reasons for sepa- 
ration which the scripture allows; such BLS idolatry, 
perverting the gospel and institutions o( Christ, ami 
tyranny over the consciences of men, in making 

things necessary to salvation which Christ never 
made so. But none of these things can, with any 

# D'AubigrK'.'s History of the Reformation. Vol. II. p. 3] I. 



llfi 

aoD, be charg n the Church of 

toe we | ess to give religious worship 

only ship no images; we invocate 

ints : we adore no host : we creep to no crucifix : 

We equal no traditions with the 
i : we lock it not up from the people, in an un- 
known language: we preach no other terms 
vation than Christ and his apostles did : we set up 
no monarchy in the Church, to undermine Christ, 
and to dispense with his laws and institutions. We 
mangle no sacraments, nor pretend to know what 
makes more for the honor of his blood, than he did 
himself. We pretend to no skill in expiating men's 
sins when they are dead : nor turning the bottomless 
pit into the pains of purgatory, by a charm of words 
and a quick motion of the hand. AVe do not cheat 
men's souls with false bills of exchange, called in- 
dulgences, nor give out that we have the treasure of 
the Church in our keeping, which we can apply as 
we have occasion. We use no pious frauds to 
delude the people, nor pretend to be infallible. 
These are the things which the divines of our Church 
have, with great clearness and strength of reason, 
made good against the Church of Rome." * 

I omit even to mention many things which we 
deem as superstitious, and tending to idolatry. 
Those which I have noticed are abundantly suffi- 
cient to the object which I have in view. — to inform 
such of our people as have not given much attention 
to the subject, of the points of controversy between 
Papists and Protestants, and how great was the 
necessity of a reformation. Allow me. brethren, to 
repeat, that it is against these heresies, idolatries, and 
corrupt practices, that we protest, and not against 
any church of Christ. In rejecting those corruptions, 
we do not separate from the " One Catholic and 
Apostolic Church." but rather adhere to it more stead- 

' >nllingfleet's Works. Vol. II. p. 649, 



119 

fastly, and in its greater purity. And, as St. Peter 
said to those who had " made the commandment of 
God of none effect by their tradition," " Whether it 
be right in the sight of God to hearken unto men, 
more than unto God, judge ye." 

Having, in many of the last sections, shown the 
reasons and necessity of the great Reformation in 
the sixteenth century, it seems to be proper, before I 
dismiss the subject, that some brief notice should 
be taken of the principal objections which the Ro- 
manists urge against it. 

One objection, often urged, and the most relied 
upon, is the division among Protestants. This they 
think to be a good proof that the Reformation is an 
evil work : that men should not be allowed to " search 
the scriptures," nor to judge for themselves, what are 
the doctrines of Christ, and where his church is to be 
found : that by continuing in the old corruptions, 
and, as the good Bishop of Arath says, submitting to 
the pope, we should all be united. 

It is easy to show, and often has been shown, that 
the Papists have not been themselves so united, as 
they would have it believed. But passing that, we 
may reply, that to unite in what is opposed to the 
truth of God's word, far from being our duty, is a 
great sin. The apostles have taught us, by their ex- 
ample, even at the risk of our lives to obey God 
rather than man. This the reformers did, and thou- 
sands and tens of thousands accordingly and patiently 
suffered the most excruciating deaths. What is 
called union in the Church of Rome, is indeed in- 
tolerance. They have nol allowed people to inquire 
for themselves, and to profess what they sincerely 

believe to be the truth as it is in Jesus Christ. Their 
people have no liberty of conscience ; but are com- 
pelled to believe what they, who assume to he "lords 
over God's heritage," command, or endure prisons, 
pains, and death. Their remedy for divisions is the 



120 

greater evil. It is much better that Christians should 
be divided into as many sects or denominations as 
were the Corinthians in the first century, than that 
the conscience should be enslaved. The first settlers 
of this State were all united, as long as they suffered 
no one, who differed from their opinions, to live 
among them. But who of us now would be wil- 
ling that those persecuting laws should be revived ? 
AVere they by any one sect of Protestants now re- 
vived, the Papists would themselves be among the 
loudest in complaining. Nothing will truly unite 
men in religion, but the renovation of their hearts 
by the grace of God, and faith in Jesus Christ. 

This reasoning of the Papists would prove that 
the gospel should not be preached ; because, as 
Christ foretold, it does u not brins: peace on earth, 
but a sword," and produces divisions among fami- 
lies and friends. As our Church truly says, Article 
XXXIV., ; - It is not necessary that traditions and 
ceremonies be in all places one and utterly like ; for 
at all times they have been divers, and may be 
changed, according to the diversity of countries, 
times, and men's manners, so that nothing be or- 
dained against God's word.'' 

People, as they ever have done, will continue to 
differ in opinion. The early fathers of the church, 
of whom so much is said, differed in opinion one 
from another, and on points, too. of much import- 
ance, and some ' them seem to have differed from 
themselves. Christians were divided in the apostles' 
days, and much more in the three centuries next 
following. This is shown by many writers.* 

I have often wondered at the confidence with 
which some learned writers speak of the union and 
perfect harmony and agreement of the early Chris- 
tians. In what is es^ntial, the most of them, no 

■ See one of the most recent and most easy of access. Good's 
Divine Rule of Faith and Practice, vol. L p. 332, fee. See, 
also, Mosheim, cent. I. p. ii. chapter V. 



121 

doubt, agreed ; they built on one and the same 
foundation, Jesus Christ, as our only mediator and 
advocate with the Father ; in other things they dif- 
fered. Can any one believe that the Galatians and 
Philippians, when St. Paul wrote to them, were in 
all things agreed ? Of no church do the scriptures 
speak more than of that at Corinth. Though they 
were so enriched by the divine favor, that they 
" came behind in no gift," yet how divided ! in one 
church four denominations! how irreverent at the 
Lord's supper! how irregular in their prayer-meet- 
ings! Look, also, at the seven churches of Asia. 
How soon a large part of them had erred ! Accord- 
ing to the number of professing Christians, there 
were more sects, and heresies, and schisms, in the 
two first centuries, than at the present time ; and 
none at the present day are more extravagant or ab- 
surd. Any one who doubts this, needs but to read 
the short, but very learned work of Peter King on 
the Apostles' Creed. Indeed, most of the heresies 
of modern times are old ones revived under new 
names. The word and the Spirit of God, with the 
doctrines and sacraments of Jesus Christ, are the 
true bond of union among Christians. 

Division among Christians is a great evil; but 
God, who is infinitely wise and governs all things, 
can, and he does make it subservient to some good, 
as might easily be shown. When this subject is 
rightly viewed, we need not w< er at St. Paul's 
rejoicing that Christ was preached ot" contention even. 
It is vastly better that he should be preached u of 
good-will;" but when the true doctrines of the cross 
are preached from a spirit of emulation and sectarian 
zeal, some good is produced; the knowledge of 
Christ is extended, and souls arc converted to God, 
In this we should all rejoice mkI may the Lord help 
us to say, " We will rejoice 

In our Lord's parable of the tares of the field, he 
teaches his disciples to be very cautious in any at- 



122 

tempts to root them out, lest the good wheat should 
be injured. By no Christians has this precept been 
disregarded more than by the Church of Rome. 
Under pretence of purifying the church from heresy 
and error, they have exceedingly injured the good 
wheat ; thousands and myriads of the best and most 
pious Christians have they put to death. Indeed, it 
may be generally and truly said, that in their perse- 
cution they have rooted up the wheat and left the 
tares to grow. 

Another objection often made is, that the reformers 
were wicked, ungodly men. That such an objection 
should come from such a quarter, all, who have any 
knowledge of what the Church of Rome then was, 
and for centuries had been, may well wonder. 
Protestants boast of no perfection or infallibility. If 
Paul considered himself as among the chief of sin- 
ners, well may a sense of our unworthiness humble 
us before God, and cause the best Christians daily 
to pray, as Christ has taught them, " Forgive us our 
trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against 
us." We know, too, that the infinitely wise God 
can make the wrath of man to praise him ; the evil 
designs of the wicked to promote the good purposes 
of his providence, and to turn out for the furtherance 
of the gospel. And were the reformers as bad, as 
malice can represent them, it would not in any de- 
gree prove that the doctrines of Christ, maintained 
by Protestants, are not according to the word and 
will of God ; nor that they have rejected any thing 
as idolatrous and corrupt, which was taught by 
Christ and his apostles. With this view of depre- 
ciating the good work o£ the Reformation, no one 
character has been more stigmatized and pointed at 
than Henry VIII. of England. It is an unpleasant 
thing to speak of the faults of any individual; of 
those, especially, who profess to believe in Jesus 
Christ. But I could never see that Protestants, as 
such, have any interest, more than Papists, in de- 



123 

fending the character and morals of that king. He 
rejected, (very wisely, I think,) the pope's supremacy. 
It was chiefly a political question, whether a foreign 
power should have rule and collect tribute in Eng- 
land. The time, we may hope, is not far distant, 
when all kings will have the wisdom and moral 
courage to do the like. The time has already come, 
when, evidently in consequence of the Reformation, 
the pope can no longer place his foot on the necks 
of kings and emperors, nor compel them to hold his 
stirrup, while he mounts his horse. Excepting this 
point of the supremacy, which Henry for political, 
and, I fear, from selfish reasons rejected, he remained 
till his death, a bigoted and persecuting Papist. 

" Talk they of morals ? " There was no one thing 
that called louder for a reformation, than the im- 
morality of Christians, of the clergy especially, and 
of the monks chiefly, at the commencement of the 
sixteenth century. The Papists themselves, the 
more pious of the clergy and laity throughout Eu- 
rope, deeply lamented the depravity of the times, 
and demanded a reformation of many abuses. And 
it required the utmost art and energy of the pope, 
" the man of sin," and the aid of his monks and car- 
dinals, to prevent a general reform. Let those who 
read the very abusive language uttered and published 
against Henry VIII., and his second wife, and 
against Luther even, read also the history of Pope 
Alexander VI., — his court, his mistresses, and his 
most infamous children. They lived al the time o( 
Henry and Luther; and people of more abandoned, 
wicked lives cannot well be found on the page of 
history. An 4 the Papists the people to cast the stone 
at Henry and Luther? 

It will suffice here to add, thai the reformers gave 

abundant proof of their sincerity and renouncing the 

world; — of their faith in Christ and trust in &od, 
by the Bufferings and deaths, which, in defence ^( 

the gospel, they SO patiently endured. 



124 

Protestants are sometimes asked, " Where was 
your Church before Luther lived ? " And they have 
but to answer, " "Where it now is, and ever will be 
to the end of the world." The Reformation has 
founded no new church. How often must we re- 
peat, that rejecting what is false and erroneous, 
makes no change in that which is true ? We pro- 
test against no church of Christ; but against the 
errors and idolatrous superstitions which Popery has 
added to the truth of God. 

Some have said, that the Reformation is a failure. 
As well may they say that Christianity is a failure. 
Where will you find Christians more pure in doc- 
trine, — more holy in practice, — more tolerant in 
spirit, — more free from idolatry ; in worship more 
scriptural, or in zeal more engaged in propagating 
the true principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ, than 
in Protestant churches ? Though earnestly engaged 
in " fighting the good fight of faith," the " weapons 
of their warfare are not carnal." Our prospects of 
success and of doing good were never more en- 
couraging than at the present time. And, as it 
seems to me, he must be much prejudiced or will- 
fully blind, who does not see, that the Reformation 
has effected and is still effecting great and perma- 
nent good in the One Catholic and Apostolic Church. 
Whether or not it be a failure, something perhaps 
may be added hereafter. 

Having said something in reply to the objection 
to the Reformation, it seems proper to add some 
few remarks upon the good fruits which have re- 
sulted from it. To do justice to this subject would 
require a volume. I would briefly remind you, that, 

1. It has evidently produced some reformation in 
the Church of Rome. Compare the morals of the 
court of Rome since the Reformation, with what 
they were during the three centuries previous, and 
you will be surprised at the contrast. The power of 



125 

that court has been very much diminished. The 
thunders of the Vatican, at which the world then 
trembled, are now heard with pity, mingled with 
contempt. That infernal and most horrid machine 
of Popery, the Inquisition, we trust in God will not 
much more, by any Christians, be tolerated. That 
lucrative traffic, the sale of indulgences, has, in con- 
sequence of the Reformation, become, comparatively 
an unprofitable business. 

2. The ungodly spirit and bloody hand of perse- 
cution have been very much restrained, and tolera- 
tion, on true Christian principles, is happily and 
very much increased. In this good work the Re- 
formation has uniformly taken the lead and is now 
far ahead. 

3. The true spirit of missions, and efforts to con- 
vert the heathen, not by carnal weapons, or by hiding 
or perverting the truth, but by that " sword of the 
spirit, which is the word of God." Preaching more 
generally the doctrines of Jesus Christ, and him 
crucified, is also among the noble fruits of the Refor- 
mation. 

4. The preaching of the Roman clergy has been 
changed for the better, especially in Protestant coun- 
tries. They now preach less of saints and relics; 
of masses and purgatory, of popes and c * mother 
church," and more of Christ. In this last, I fear, 
they are still in all countries much deficient, and that 
the worship of Mary, where Protestants arc not 
spectators, is but little diminished. 

5. The Reformation has produced far more kindly 
feeling toward the Jews, and labors to open their 
eyes to their true Messiah, not by the biquisition, 
but by their own holy scriptures, and by the gentle 

menus of persuasion and love. Il was Owing to the 
spirit and power of Popery, thai they were formerly 

persecuted in England, even. 

6. And easily mighl it be shown, and evidently 

indeed may it be seen, thai tin* Reformation lias 



126 

been, to a great degree, instrumental in diffusing a 
correct knowledge of the civil, as well as the religious 
rights of men, and of enlightening the people in the 
true principles of liberty and free government. 
Very much more might be added on the subject of 
the good which Protestants have effected. 

Should any one ask, seeing the Church of Rome 
has apparently, in some degree reformed, why we 
should not, as the Bishop of Arath urges, return to 
it? I answer, 

1. It is a reformation forced upon it; the Roman- 
ists will themselves tell you that they never change. 
And, 

2. Why should we go to them ? rather they reject 
their errors and unite with us. Have we not the 
words of eternal life ? 

3. We never have departed from the One Catho- 
lic and Apostolic Church. We have merely re- 
jected what is unscriptural, superstitious, idolatrous 
and false. 

4. We would gladly, and are ready to unite with 
them and all Christians, in whatever " is good unto 
the use of edifying," and according to the word of 
God. And, 

5. To unite with any Christians in what is errone- 
ous or unscriptural, is going, not to the true catholic 
church, but from it. 

It must be acknowledged that the court of Rome 
knows wonderfully well, how to turn all times, and 
changes, and events, to its own advantage. They 
are certainly " wise as serpents," whether or not they 
are " harmless as doves." w The children of this 
world are wise in their generation," and " the chil- 
dren of light " may learn something from their con- 
sistency and zeal. And so may Protestants from 
the Romanists. 

In the Edinburgh Review of Parke's History of 
the Popes, No. CXLV., are remarks upon this sub- 



127 

ject, which the reader, I trust, will readily excuse my 
transcribing. 

" It is impossible," says the reviewer, " to deny 
that the polity of the Church of Rome is the very 
master-piece of human wisdom. In truth, nothing 
but such polity — could have borne up such doctrines. 
We will, at present, advert to only one important 
part of the polity of the Church of Rome. She 
thoroughly understands, what no other church has 
ever understood, how to deal with enthusiasts. In 
some sects, particularly in infant sects, enthusiasm 
is suffered to be rampant. In other sects, particularly 
in sects long established and richly endowed, it is 
regarded with aversion. The Catholic (Roman) 
Church, neither submits to enthusiasm, nor pro- 
scribes it ; but uses it. She knows that when reli- 
gious feelings have obtained the complete empire of 
the mind, they impart a strange energy; they raise 
men above the dominion of pain and pleasure. She 
knows that a person in this state is no object of con- 
tempt. He may be vulgar, ignorant, visionary, ex- 
travagant ; but he will do and suffer things, which it 
is for her interest that some one should do and suffer; 
yet from which calm and sober-minded men would 
shrink. She accordingly enlists him in her service ; 
assigns him some forlorn hope; sends him forth with 
her benediction and applause. The ignorant enthu- 
siast, whom the Anglican Church makes her enemy, 
and, whatever the polite and learned may think, a 
dangerous enemy, the Roman Church makes ;i 
champion. She bids him nurse his beard, covers 
him with a gown and hood of coarse dark stuff ties 
a rope round his waist, and sends him forth to teach 
in her name. He costs her nothing* He takes not 

a ducat away from the revenues of her beneficed 

clergy. Fie lives by the alms o{ those who respect 
his spiritual character, and are thankful for his in- 
structions. He preaches, not exactly in the style of 
Masillon, but in a way which moves the passions oi 



128 






uneducated hearers ; and all his influence is employ- 
ed to strengthen the church of which he is a minister. 
In this way, the Church of Rome unites in herself 
all the strength of establishment, and all the strength 
of dissent. With the utmost pomp of a dominant 
hierarchy above, she has all the energy of the volun- 
tary system below. It would be easy to mention 
very recent instances, in which the hearts of hun- 
dreds of thousands, estranged from her by the selfish- 
ness, sloth and cowardice of the beneficed clergy, 
who have been brought back by the zeal of the 
begging friars. 

" Even for female agency there is a place in her 
system. To devout women she assigns spiritual 
functions, dignities, and magistracies. In our 
country, if a noble lady is wooed by more than ordi- 
nary zeal, &c. &c. At Rome, the countess of Hunt- 
ington would have a place in the calendar as St. 
Selina ; and Mrs, Fry would be foundress and first 
superior of the Blessed Order of Sisters of the Gods. 

" Place Ignatius Loyala at Oxford ; he is certain 
to become the head of a formidable secession. 
Place John Wesley at Rome ; he is certain to be 
the first general of a new society devoted to the in- 
terests and honor of the church. Joanna Southcote, 
at Rome, would found an order of Barefooted Car- 
melites, every one of whom is ready to suffer mar- 
tyrdom for the church ; a solemn festival is conse- 
crated to her memory, and her statue, placed over 
the holy water, would strike the eye of every stranger 
who enters St. Peter's." Diversity of opinion, which 
divides Protestants into parties and sects, Rome so 
uses as to increase her numbers, and strengthen her 
power. In this she is "wiser in her generation 
than " Protestants. We are, undoubtedly, unwise 
in suffering things of little or no importance to 
divide us ; and not only unwise, but sinful, in suf- 
fering such divisions to excite animosities and 
uncharitableness between those of differing denom- 



129 

inations. Though we worship in separate commu- 
nions, if we would all worship the same God and 
Saviour, teach essentially the same doctrines, in the 
unity of one and the same spirit, and if all of us, 
each in his own way, were to labor in love, the ill 
effect of our divisions would be very much dimin- 
ished. They who believe in and practise what is 
essential to Christianity, and necessary to salvation, 
should love as brethren. And especially at the 
present time, when the religion of Christ is so pow- 
erfully assailed by those who add to God's word on 
the one hand, and take from it on the other, all who 
build on the foundation of Christ should unite in 
one and the same spirit, if not in the same mode of 
worship. 

No believer in Christ should permit his faith to be 
weakened or disturbed by those divisions ; they were 
foretold by Christ and his apostles ; they are the 
fulfilment of prophecies, and however they may 
disgrace religion, they confirm its truth. And, for 
the encouragement of Protestant Episcopalians I 
would add, that if our Church adheres steadfastly 
to her distinctive principles and her present stand- 
ards, she is likely to be a happy asylum for all who 
would avoid the idolatrous corruptions, or the spe- 
cious infidelity, by which the religion of Christ is 
beset, on the right and on the left. 

I have now finished my remarks, which are in- 
tended to remind you of the corruptions which we 
deem to be idolatrous, unscriptural, and inconsistent 
with the religion which Christ has established and 
his apostles preached. You stand now on solid 
ground. Take heed that you are not enticed to de- 
part from it. " To the law and to the testimony." 
Use the libertywherewith Christ has made von tree. 
u Search the scriptures," and pray God so to en- 
lighten your minds, that you may truly understand 
them. 



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